The Wellington Youth Council won a statewide award for this photo of the Wellington Patriot Memorial.
Wellington Youth Council Helping To Create The Next Generation Of Community Leaders BY M. DENNIS TAYLOR
The Wellington Village Council goes to great effort in seeking input from the community on a wide array of topics. Until recently, those efforts were concentrated primarily on the adults in the community. Then, in 2019, the Wellington Youth Council was born, and it is already winning awards and creating success. “It was part of the Florida League of Cities initiative for engaging youth,” Wellington Mayor Anne Gerwig explained. “I’d been trying to get one started in Wellington for several years.” The idea is to get high schoolers involved in local government, and one of
the challenges is that the students get busy with school and other activities and then, of course, the seniors graduate. “You have to make sure you keep ninth and tenth graders involved, otherwise everyone graduates, and you lose your leadership,” Gerwig said. The Wellington Youth Council program got underway in 2019 and was still in its infancy when COVID-19 arrived. Nevertheless, it has already accomplished some great things. “What we really want to do is get ideas from the youth of the community, ideas about what they want for activi-
ties and learn the best ways to engage them in the village,” Gerwig said. The program is run through Wellington’s Community Services Department. “It is very important to get kids involved and working to lead their peers in active youth programs and initiatives, and the youth council is a great way to hear from our student population,” Community Services Department Assistant Director Michelle Garvey said. The Wellington Youth Council is made up of 16 students, eight from Wellington High School and eight from Palm Beach Central High School. wellington the magazine | january 2021
69