It was all about the kids down in Olympia last week, as numerous organizations gathered at the state Capitol to advocate for early learning.
Sultan residents Julianna Johnson and her sister-in-law Jamy bundled up six Girl Scouts, six Cub Scouts, two preschoolers and one preteen, and traveled to Olympia to participate in the Have a Heart for Kids day rally. Organized by Children's Alliance, Have a Heart for Kids Day gave kids and families the opportunity to have their voices heard by numerous lawmakers who attended the event. The rally took place on Feb. 2, in front of the Legislative Building.
Julianna, leader of Cub Scout Pack No. 52, sits on the Washington State Association of Head Start & ECEAP (WSA) board of directors. Through her position on the board, Julianna arranged for her 5-year-old daughter, Sabella, to speak at the rally.
Hundreds of attendees held signs and listened close as she gave her brief presentation.
"I'm Sabella Johnson,GÇ¥she said. "Invest in early learning because it helps kids and families.GÇ¥
After the rally, the Scouts visited with 39th District Reps. Elizabeth Scott and Dan Kristiansen, and asked them questions about what it's like to be a representative. The Scouts asked questions enthusiastically, wanting to know how many hours they work during the day and how often they deal with people who come to their office with problems.
"Most of the time, people are coming because they're concerned about a bill or they have a problem and they want to see a bill introduced to fix that problem,GÇ¥ Scott explained. "Actually, Rep. Kristiansen and I love to help people, so, we enjoy hearing what the problems are that affect different groups of people.
Scott told the Scouts that any of them would be welcome to come to her with an idea or an issue that they would like to see fixed.
"I love it when kids come, I miss my children at home GÇô my youngest is 11 years old GÇô so I love it when kids come to my office,GÇ¥ Scott said. "And, besides, kids often have excellent ideas.GÇ¥
Scott asked the Scouts for ideas on ways to make school better. The first thing that came up was the quality of the food, which got a resounding thumbs-down from many of the Scouts. Nine-year-old Rebecca Stone, a fourth grader at Sultan Elementary School, explained that in addition to improving the overall quality of the food, they needed to have better options available for students with food allergies.
Casey Sifferman, another fourth-grade student at Sultan Elementary School, said he felt they needed to make the playgrounds safer. Immediately after his comment, one of the Girl Scouts said that she wanted taller monkey bars. Scott pointed out that these two ideas were actually in contradiction to each other.
"This brings up a problem,GÇ¥ Scott said. "We've got conflicting bill ideas.GÇ¥
One student said that he felt that there needed to be more recess, and Kristiansen told the Scouts a story about a group of third-graders who traveled to Olympia a couple years back GÇô one of their ideas had been to have more recess during the day.
"We kind of did a debate among the third-graders, and initially almost everybody in the room supported more recess,GÇ¥ Kristiansen said. "But after they really thought about it, they actually voted against it.GÇ¥
He explained that during their discussion, they realized that if they had more recess during the day, this would mean they would have more homework in the evenings.
The Scouts spent approximately 20 minutes interacting with Kristiansen and Scott. After the meeting, they spent some more time touring the Capitol before preparing to return home to Sultan.
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