Today, I address all of Waukesha. As most of you know I am running for mayor of Waukesha County and this essay will share with you the changes I want to make for our community.

There are many problems I would like to address and common issues that can be improved. I would like to address schools, the DNR, animal shelters, and teen presence in the community. By making simple changes to these government funded programs, I believe we can make a greater change for our community. I hope this essay also convinces you to vote for me as mayor.

Schools are one of the most important institutions in the world, and I believe we can take action in our local community to improve our schools. A significant problem in our community is the presence of drugs at schools. I was once a highschool student in Waukesha and  saw drugs and alcohol  everywhere, I have ideas to prevent such issues at our schools. There should be drug testing for kids in any after school sport or club.

In one Waukesha County School, Arrowhead High School, there is drug testing for all athletes which encourages many teens not to drink or do drugs. Another way we can help in schools is by a increased social comfortability at schools. I believe one way to create this is by having certain rooms that are designated for lunch. Teens that don’t want to go into the crazy lunch room with the loud noises and hundreds of kids can sit in these rooms with maybe one or two friends, or even start a club at lunch with a group.

Academics in school are important to most students but there are always kids that don’t care enough about how school is going. One way to encourage better grades is an incentive program that gets kids rewards for good grades. An example would be that when  you get a 95% or higher on a test you receive a free homework pass or something free at lunch. The schools in the district have agreed to cooperate with the Mayor's office to make these ideas a reality. High school can be a difficult time for teens and these are a few ways of improving their academics by using incentive programs and overall comfort at school by having separate lunch rooms and more accepting clubs at schools. 

The Department of Natural Resources is important to the overall health and wellness of our state. Wisconsin is a state where hunting, fishing, and just being outdoors are popular, so in order to keep our county clean we need to improve the DNR services to our surrounding nature. It is imperative to the DNR that there are volunteers to keep up our parks and take care of our wildlife.

As Mayor, I would start a new program that pairs park volunteers with teenagers from the high school who need service hours or that belong to a club that involves nature, this would help clean and maintain our parks. Another way to get more volunteers would be pairing the current and experienced volunteers with felons or people who need community service. This way both the environment benefits and people can earn their service hours outdoors. There are many improvements to the parks and outdoor spaces that we can start by developing service programs with felons and high schoolers.  

In light of current events going on in our country and natural disasters, the kind people in our Waukesha Humane Society have taken in a large number of animals and need the community's help. I have volunteered at the animal shelter for a few years now and saw the overload of work that the people working at the shelter take. To help these animals I came up with a way to get them their new homes and help the community. The hospitals (specifically childrens) located in Waukesha are always waiting for new therapy dogs and cats to visit the patients. I think that pairing up families with patients to these animals would have a great effect on both the animals and the families. The Humane society could find volunteers to train the dogs and get them their therapy license, then the pets could go home to the families. This is one of many ideas that I have to better the community, but this one would help the people in need most. 

The children in our community are our future and I believe we can do a better job of helping them when they're outside of school and making their own decisions. There needs to be more programs initiated to help the youth in our community learn life lessons that they need to be effective members of society. One program that could start would be similar to the Young Life program that they have in some communities but not religious based. These programs would be fun for teens and bring them closer with the peers in their community. These clubs would have activities such as scavenger hunts, lip sync battles, and more! For younger kids there could be a daily group that meets after school, this would help kids whose parents work after school or kids who don’t have the support they need in their home lives. The club would be run by teachers who volunteer their time after school and they would serve drinks and snacks. The group of younger children would have more educational and creative activities such as painting or making monuments out of legos. The youth in the community is the world's future and in ur small community we can change create future citizens to be proud of.

In this upcoming election, remember me you look down at the ballot. I have many ideas and smart ways to better help our community, the schools and drug prevention, the DNR and helping felons, the animals in our shelters, and helping the youth of America in our own community. I thank you for your time and please select my name in the ballot this spring.