Youth council project brings rainbow crosswalk to Mulgrave

GUYSBOROUGH – Last fall, councillors for the Town of Mulgrave brought forward the idea of creating a youth council to facilitate connection between council and youth in the town. The call went out on social media and, although council had hoped for four or five youth to respond to the opportunity, they have been very pleased with the one youth who answered the call, Victoria Cook.

After consulting with local youth, Cook who was in Grade 8 at the time, brought several ideas about the sort of things youth would like to see in the town to Councillor Krista Luddington, who told The Journal on Aug. 22, “Some were bigger capital items so those weren’t possible at this very moment but she did bring this rainbow crosswalk idea to demonstrate how welcoming and inclusive Mulgrave is…Everybody around the [council] table was on board, they loved the idea. It was cost efficient but, at the same time, provided an opportunity for Victoria with the youth council to see a project through from start to finish.”

Once the project was approved, Cook got to work researching the materials, costs and procurement of supplies.

“She did all of the leg work that has to happen when you run any type of project. It was a really great opportunity for her because she saw it through,” said Luddington.

This past Friday, Aug. 19 the first of two rainbow crosswalks was painted at the entrance to town by McNair’s Cove. The second rainbow crosswalk is planned for the roadway near the Royal Canadian Legion and the Scotia Trail, painting will be done after scheduled paving work is completed in the fall.

Cook told The Journal on Aug. 21 that it was a relief to see the project move forward. “It has been a hard time trying to get it there with budgeting, trying to find the paint; the paint is very expensive.”

The idea for the rainbow crosswalks, said Cook, arose because she has, “a lot of friends and community people that I am close to that are under the LGBTQ spectrum and I am very close to that cause … I felt it was something that should be worked at because it’s growing around the world, the cause of 2SLGBTQIA+. I thought, why not do something where we could widen our range of acceptance for people who might be coming to Mulgrave or live in Mulgrave…I also feel very excited that we’re coming into a new level of acceptance in our community.”

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Reflecting on the youth council experience, Cook said, “I want to do it again this coming year…it was fun being able to put my own ideas forward and being able to work directly with council. It gave me a lot of experience that I can put towards my future years if I wanted to join the government.”

Luddington told The Journal the call will go out again in September for youth council members and she hopes that seeing the tangible result of youth council efforts will encourage more community youth to engage with their municipal government.

“The whole idea with youth council…was for them to see a project through from start to finish because if you’re not well-versed in what it takes to get a project off the ground, it can be eye-opening … and to be able to say that this project came from youth council is a really big accomplishment,” said Luddington.

Lois Ann Dort, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal