Vermont Students Aced the 2024 Good Citizen Challenge

Jane Lindholm of Vermont Public and Cathy Resmer of Seven Days with the 2024 Distinguished Citizens: Issabelle Paulson, Susannah Rye, Jacob Rye, Sam Sanborn, Heikki Milles, Vivi Milles, Willa Saunders and Hazel Saunders Credit: Courtesy

What does it mean to be a Good Citizen? We asked kids who participated in this summer’s Good Citizen Challenge to share their interpretations of the term.

Gilbert Whitman of Poultney said it well: “I think being a good citizen means staying on top of what is happening in your community, getting involved and helping people if you can.” The 13-year-old’s wise words sum up the mission of the Good Citizen Challenge, the nonpartisan youth civics initiative organized by Seven Days and Kids VT.

This summer’s Challenge invited kids to take part in 25 different activities, such as picking up trash in a public place, reading the local news, taking a test to spot AI-generated images and designing a new “I Voted” sticker.

We launched the Challenge in June with the goal of logging 1,000 completed activities from kids all over the state. Thanks to young people like Gilbert, we crushed it — Vermont kids completed 1,315 activities this summer. A total of 250 K-8 students participated. Some did one activity; others did more. Eight Distinguished Citizens completed all 25!

Seven Days intern Ben Conway, tabling in the rain at the Not Quite Independence Day festivities in Waterbury Credit: Courtesy

We celebrated all of these Good Citizens at a reception at the Vermont Statehouse on September 19, where we honored our prize winners and randomly chose the recipient of the grand prize trip to Washington, D.C. — Felix Weissberger of Winooski.

Thank you to everyone who participated — including the indispensable adult helpers and team leaders, and Seven Days intern Ben Conway, a Middlebury College student who spent the summer promoting the Challenge. And kudos to all of our partners and underwriters who made these transformative experiences possible. We can’t wait to do it again next year!

The 2024 Good Citizen Challenge, by the numbers

Good Citizen Challenge participants at the Statehouse in Montpelier Credit: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

1,315: Activities completed
11: Times Cathy and/or Ben appeared live on the 6 a.m. newscast on Channel 3 to raffle off prizes
5: Public events where Seven Days staff tabled
3: Times we tabled in the rain
$5k+: Amount donated to various Vermont charities through kids in the Challenge
1: Vermont “I Voted” stickers featured in a voting sticker quiz in the New York Times: — congrats, Kezia Warfisch of Wolcott!
73: Percent of Challenge participants who said they learned something new about the place where they live
68: Percent of Challenge participants who said they’d be more likely to go to a community event in the future
41: Percent of participants who said the Challenge made them more likely to follow local news
29: Percent who said the Challenge made them more likely to run for office someday

Find all of the Challenge activities, as well as the 2024 Hall of Fame, at goodcitizenvt.com.

The original print version of this article was headlined “Civic spirit | Vermont students learned about and helped their communities through the Good Citizen Challenge”