Columbia honors Mayor's Youth Council, project to enhance and protect Duck River usage

As the school year comes to an end, the city recognized this year's Mayor's Youth Council at City Hall and shed some light recently on the group's project to better utilize The Duck River.

The group gathered at City Hall during the council's May regular meeting. There, they were joined by council members and Chaz Molder, who founded the Youth Council as a way for young people to better understand the workings of local government as well as undertake a project that could benefit the local community.

More: New members of Columbia Mayor's Youth Council recognized

"This year's work was particularly exciting and admirable," Molder said. "This was the first year that the Mayor's Youth Council has sort of taken the steps to 'level up' the youth council. We've had some returning youth council members, and we had our very first freshman this year."

This year was the first since the council's founding in 2021 that it had grown beyond Columbia, Molder said, noting that schools were being represented this year from all across the county.

"We've had county schools represented, city schools represented, private schools represented, home schools represented," Molder said. "It's just been really unique seeing the service that these young people have already committed themselves to to make their community a better place."

Former Mt. Pleasant principal Dr. Ryan Jackson, who helped facilitate the group's project, also recognized its work and potential for the community's youth.

"I knew this was going to be cool, but I wanted to challenge the council in such a way that we can empower young people to do something special," Jackson said. "We came up with a challenge for these students that would empower them in such a way to make a direct impact in their community, and it started with this idea of environmental conservation."

The challenge to save The Duck

Earlier this year, The Duck River was named among the top endangered rivers in the nation.

The designation was primarily due to its over-usage, caused by rapid growth in the region, officials have noted.

More: Duck River ranks third among nation's most endangered rivers for 2024

For the Youth Council's project, students were broken up into teams with two goals in mind. The first goal was for the students to create a policy as if they were a part of an actual city council. The second goal was for them to take that policy and create a social media outreach campaign to maximize its influence.

"They truly stepped up to the plate, went above and beyond, created not only some very interesting policy ideas for the mayor to chew on, but then knocked it out of the park with their social media outreach videos," Jackson said. "They did absolutely amazing."

Council members were later shown three videos created by the students, each offering facts and data about The Duck River, its biodiversity and ways residents can benefit from conserving their water usage. It not only saves people a few bucks on their monthly power bills, but ensures the Duck River can continue to thrive.

The social media campaign was also part of a contest, wherein the mayor and council would choose the best to post on social media. After seeing all three, Molder made the executive decision to post not just one, but all of them to the McEwen Group (the project's sponsor) website and the City of Columbia Government's social pages.

"All three of those videos will be shared, and I'll just say congratulations again to all of you," Molder said.

Jay Powell is a general reporter for The Daily Herald. Get up-to-date news in your inbox by subscribing to The Daily Herald newsletter at www.ColumbiaDailyHerald.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: City honors Youth Council to enhance and protect Duck River usage