May 21st, 2024

By Silvia, a student at Elizabeth Ziegler Public School

I had a blast today as a Councillor for a Day for the City of Waterloo! In the morning, I got to go to the State of the City breakfast and meet a lot of great people with interesting jobs, like the head of the Waterloo Public Library, the Chief of Police and all of the councillors. I heard some fabulous speakers, including the Indigenous welcome and Mayor Dorothy McCabe’s speech.

After the Mayor’s speech, they played videos of me and the other councillors talking about our ideas. To make Waterloo even better, my idea is to create a community kitchen and garden for the unhoused and people in need. I liked hearing all the other kids’ ideas, too. And I was excited when we got to go up on stage.

It was a real shock when we left the building to find a limo waiting for us! The limo took us to the service centre where we saw some cool vehicles, an enormous pile of salt and three greenhouses.

Next, we went to the fire station, where the firefighters taught us fire safety and how they do things at the fire hall. We saw some tools they would use, like a big saw and a firetruck. We also got to try the hose and test different water pressure. Next, we had a quick lunch and headed over to the Museum.

At the Waterloo Museum, we held some of Waterloo’s artifacts. The most interesting artifact was the square barrel, a prototype they thought would be good for shipping, but ended up leaking a lot!

One of my favourite parts of the day was going to the council chambers. We got to discuss real ideas and actions. We saw all the councillors’ and the mayor’s offices, where we hung out until our parents came to pick us up.

I loved this experience. It was lots of fun, educational and interesting. Thank you so much to the Mayor, all the councillors (especially Ward 5 councillor Jen Vasic) and the Mayor’s executive assistant, Iliana Medellin, for this experience.

#StudentVoice Series

This article is written by a WRDSB student and is part of the Student Agency and Voice program. Student journalists embody WRDSB’s commitment to creating space for students to tell their stories. They are ambassadors for their peers as they share their personal experiences and stories about their schools and communities in their unique voices.