Waterbury Kids take the Seven Days Good Citizen Challenge
August 11, 2024 | By Cathy Resmer | Seven Days
Susannah Rye dropping off at the Waterbury Common Market. Photo courtesy of Seven Days
Ten-year-old Susannah Rye of Waterbury has had a busy summer. In June, shortly after classes ended, she set out to complete all 25 activities in the Good Citizen Challenge, a nonpartisan youth civics project organized by Burlington-based Seven Days newspaper. The Challenge invites kids in grades K through 8 to complete activities that teach them about their community and show them ways to get involved.
Susannah Rye and Waterbury Roundabout photographer Gordon Miller. Photo courtesy of Seven Days
In pursuit of her goal, Susannah has attended the Waterbury Farmers Market, searched for a deed at the town clerk’s office, picked up trash outside the elementary school, attended a legislative candidate forum, borrowed books from the library and read articles in the Waterbury Roundabout. She even chatted up Roundabout photographer Gordon Miller for the “Talk To a Journalist” activity. “He told me he liked taking pictures of people having fun,” she wrote in her entry.
Last summer, Susannah did a few of the 2023 Good Citizen activities and attended the awards reception at the Statehouse in Montpelier. That inspired her to tackle the whole Challenge this year. Both she and her older brother, Jacob, have been completing and submitting activities all summer long, with help from their mom, Caitlin Hollister. In fact, Jacob, 12, won a $50 gift card to Phoenix Books in one of the weekly prize drawings.
Both siblings are now very close to the finish line. Susannah’s favorite activity? “Organize Support for a Cause.” She collected donations for the Waterbury Common Market, a food resource for people in the area. After she found the organization’s wish list online, she got a few items herself and invited her neighbors to contribute, too. “I just reached out to them over email and a lot of them responded,” she said. That entry made it into the Summer 2024 Good Citizen Hall of Fame.
That’s not the only way Susannah and her brother are making an impact through the Challenge. They also both completed the “Write a Thank You Note” activity, which asks kids to think about someone, or a group of people, who have done something helpful or positive without asking anything in return. Both Susannah and Jacob wrote to Revitalizing Waterbury. In her entry for that activity, Susannah explained that “They do so much for my community!” For example, the group organized the Waterbury Arts Fest, which the fifth- and seventh-graders attended in July.
Revitalizing Waterbury Executive Director Karen Nevin said the notes were received — and appreciated. “It was incredibly sweet, and totally unexpected,” she wrote in an email. “We get a note like this every once in a while — sometimes in response to our monthly newsletter, sometimes after an event or other type of activity or with a donation. Sometimes just spontaneously. It feels good to know that our work is recognized in the community.”
Susannah Rye's note to Revitalizing Waterbury. Photo courtesy of Seven Days
Jacob Rye's note to Revitalizing Waterbury. Photo courtesy of Seven Days
Several Waterbury students have submitted activities to the Challenge this year and it’s not too late to join them. The deadline for submissions is Labor Day, Sept. 2. Everyone who completes and submits one activity to the Challenge receives a Good Citizen sticker, an invitation to the Sept. 19 reception at the Statehouse and a chance to win prizes, including a free trip to Washington, D.C.
Every activity completed is another entry in the grand prize drawing. Other prizes include a 2025 Vermont State Parks vehicle pass and a $250 gift card to any local store, which goes to a student who posts about the Challenge in their Front Porch Forum.
Find a list of rules and activities — and the Summer 2024 Good Citizen Hall of Fame — online at goodcitizenvt.com.
Cathy Resmer is deputy publisher of Seven Days newspaper and creator of the Good Citizen Challenge project.