Published November 8, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.
| Updated November 8, 2023 at 2:54 p.m.
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Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Students and presenters at the 2023 Good Citizen Challenge awards ceremony
When you're an adult, no one gives you an award for being a good citizen. You're expected to follow the local news, get involved in your community and be civil to others who may not share your views. The reward? Getting to live in a functioning democracy.
But do these things as a kid in Vermont, and you could win a free trip to Washington, D.C.
That was the grand prize of the 2023 Good Citizen Challenge, organized by Seven Days and its quarterly parenting magazine, Kids VT. We raffled it off during an awards ceremony at the Statehouse in Montpelier last Thursday. Milne Travel donated the trip; CEO Scott Milne, the 2020 Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, presented it, along with his colleague, Iris MacBeath.
Eighty-six K-8 students from across the state completed the Challenge over the summer. Many of them were there in the Statehouse with parents and some grandparents in tow. When it was time to choose the winner, Iris called for a drumroll.
The kids delivered, pounding on the desks in the House chamber — the same ones their representatives use — as Iris plucked a name from the box.
This year's winner: 11-year-old Cecilia "Cici" Neffinger of Ferrisburgh, who won airfare for two as well as two nights in a Washington, D.C.-area hotel. She seemed stunned but excited as she posed for a photo.
Like the other Good Citizens in the room, Cici completed five activities on the bingo-like 2023 Challenge scorecard. Hers included picking up trash around her school; interviewing Rep. Diane Lanpher (D-Vergennes); and researching how Plank Road, between Vergennes and Bristol, got its name — it was once a toll road made out of planks. She also watched an episode of "Vermont This Week" on Vermont Public and visited the room in the Vergennes Fire Station where the city council meets.
The grand prize wasn't the only one presented at the Statehouse ceremony. We also recognized several "distinguished citizens" who went above and beyond in their Challenge entries; among them were three participants who completed all 25 activities.
Speakers from our partner organizations — Vermont Public, Front Porch Forum and Phoenix Books — gave out these awards. State curator David Schutz and Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, a Democrat, also addressed the crowd.
This year's Challenge was organized around the theme of Vermont libraries' summer reading program: "All Together Now." Vermont Humanities gave away two $500 library prizes: one to the library that recruited the most Challenge finishers — the Bixby Memorial Free Library in Vergennes, with 27 — and one to the library whose students submitted the best work. That went to the Morristown Centennial Library. Its Good Citizen group completed multiple activities, including holding a bake sale for the nearby Johnson Public Library, which suffered extensive damage in the July flood.
Look for a roundup of these and other outstanding entries in the Winter Issue of Kids VT, inside the November 15 issue of Seven Days.
All the Challenge finishers received Good Citizen patches and stickers that read "I'm a Good Citizen." I hope they see themselves that way and act accordingly.
Before a tour of the Statehouse, Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger caught up with Cici and asked her why it's important to be a good citizen.
"Because," Cici said, "if no one's being a good citizen, then everything will just fall apart."
Bio:
Deputy publisher Cathy Resmer is an organizer of the Vermont Tech Jam. She also oversees Seven Days' parenting publication, Kids VT, and created the Good Citizen Challenge, a youth civics initiative. Resmer began her career at Seven Days as a freelance writer in 2001. Hired as a staff writer in 2005, she became the publication's first online editor in 2007.
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