Mayor’s Youth Council has big plans for Fall

Going into their third year, the Gluckstadt Mayor’s Youth Council is expecting their “biggest year yet” with a number of service projects already on tap for this year.

The Gluckstadt Mayor’s Youth Council expects to hold a coat drive starting on November 1, Club founder and Germantown High School Senior Julia Lever said.

The coat drive is a good representation of how the club has grown. In their first year, they collected about 90 coats.

“That first year we were really just figuring it out as we went,” Lever said.

The next year they “exploded” past their initial goal of 250 coats.

“I remember we reached 800 and we said let’s see where this goes,” she said.

By the end of it, they had collected around 1,800 coats.

“We have to beat that number this year as far as I am concerned,” Lever said.

The other event they have planned is a fundraising event that is still in the planning stages but should be sometime in October. Lever said they will hold a car wash and bake sale to raise money for their trip to the Mississippi Youth Municipal Summit in February on the University of Southern Mississippi campus in Hattiesburg.

Lever said the first year of the council was just about figuring out what they were doing and the second year was about growth.

“Now, we know we have something established,” she said. “We know what we are doing and the work that is needed.”

The GMYC is made up of 33 students selected from more than 200 applications and are students from Gluckstadt who attend a number of local high schools including GHS, Jackson Prep, Jackson Academy, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Madison-Ridgeland Academy and Canton Academy.

Lever said they even received applications from students who lived in Jackson and Ridgeland who wanted to join but sadly had to be rejected because they did not live in Gluckstadt.

At a recent city board meeting, Mayor Walter Morrison welcomed this year’s group, saying he was “impressed” by everyones “commitment” to the work it takes to participate in a group like the GMYC.

“I am amazed by you guys and very impressed,” Morrison said.