Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton Tori McMichael, student council president at Warren Area High School, called for collaboration between the county’s high schools. “(It) would work better if we decide to work with each other rather than against each other,” she said.

It’s a frequent refrain that young people in the community aren’t willing to volunteer and get involved to the degree that past generations may have.

It’s also a familiar refrain from young people that there is little if anything to do in Warren.

An event was held Friday aimed at bridging that gap and connecting student leaders with political leaders in the community.

Members of the student councils from Sheffield, Warren, Eisenhower and Youngsville high schools spent the day with elected leaders on Friday for “Student Government Day” at First Lutheran Church.

It’s an effort undertaken by a committee of the Warren County Council of Governments.

Danielle Flasher, who serves on Warren City Council as well as the COG, said that the first-of-its-kind event aims to bring students leaders and local officials together so the students can learn how their community works and who represents them.

“The initiative here is to engage the students with the officials,” County Grant Writer Kim Slocum said. “We hope to bridge that gap.”

The goal of the initiative is to hold sessions that bring student and elected leaders together two or three times a year.

“(We’re) looking at this connectivity to grow our community and have strong leadership,” she said.

After small group workshops in the morning, the schools came back together as a group in the afternoon to hear the ideas that each developed for how to strengthen the community.

Bridging the generational gap between elected leaders and youth was a recurring theme.

Sheffield Area High School Senior Peyton Bailey pointed out that there’s a disconnect between generations in part because they don’t know how to communicate with each other.

She also highlighted work that could be done to draw people into – and beautify – the community.

“(We are) going to lose our community if we don’t do something soon,” Bailey said.

Winni Wolfe from Eisenhower highlighted the importance of “offering more things for teenagers to do,” citing some of the challenges that come up when students are lacking things to do.

Students from Youngsville included proposals for the use of the football field at the school and echoed the communications concerns raised.

“We want more to do than to just go out and eat,” Tori McMichael, WAHS president of student council, said.

McMichael also called for less competition among the high schools.

“(It) would work better if we decide to work with each other rather than against each other,” she said.

It’s impossible to know how many of the students that participated Friday will ever get into local government.

But their ideas appear to have fallen on fertile ground in the short term.

“Keeping these connections alive and keeping that growth happening is going to be very important,” Flasher said, calling it “really important to continue to work” out the ideas the students proposed.

“This has been eye-opening for me as a borough manager,” Wendy Wilcox, Youngsville’s borough manager said.

“Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas,” City of Warren Mayor David Wortman said. “I think today is a classic example of that.”

“The future of Warren County is sitting in this room,” COG chair Paul Pascuzzi said. “The ideas generated like this event need to continue.”