At the Camp Verde Town Council meeting on April 18, in addition to the usual attendees — the council members, government employees and concerned citizens — there were several unusual guests. Six kids between the ages of 12 and 17 sat in the back, waiting for their chance to speak.
After a brief introduction from a mentor, they introduced themselves to the council. They are the Youth Advisory Council, a new youth group aimed at helping turn the desires of Camp Verde’s teenagers into actions.
“I’ve lived here most of my life, and no youth council has really done anything,” said Bryce Gorda, the group’s treasurer, at the meeting. “It’s always been adults. So I joined because I really wanted to see children make a change for once.”
Zack Garcia, the teen librarian at the Camp Verde Community Library, helped found the Youth Advisory Council. He drew from experience on a previous Teen Advisory Board at the library, which allowed teens to push for changes in the library system. But he said he hopes that teens will be able to use the new council to affect the town as a whole, not just the library.
“The sky is the limit with this group,” Garcia told the council as he introduced the members of the YAC. “They don’t know what ‘no’ means, and I think they’re going to do a lot of really cool things.”
The group had its first meeting in March, with around 12 kids showing up. Initially, Garcia and other advisory staff appointed a six-member board to run the organization, but they intend to hold elections before the next school year so the members can select their own leaders as the group moves beyond its initial stages. Raymundo Rodriguez serves as the group’s first president, with Jasmine Fang serving as vice president.
“Just as we start we already have started to make a change,” Fang wrote in an email. She has expressed enthusiasm for a project that the group is spearheading to bring a Dutch Bros. coffee shop to Camp Verde, hope
fully in an empty lot close to the high school. Already, YAC has gotten in touch with Dutch Bros. about opening a new franchise, and members have been collecting signatures from local students, showing that the community could provide the demand for their services.
The other big project on the horizon would be a community garden, hoping to find some empty land owned by the city that could be used for growing flowers or vegetables. Mayor Charlie German expressed enthusiasm at this idea, hoping to bring members of TAC to a working session of the town council to discuss land that could be converted to a garden, such as land close to the airstrip that is owned by the school, or perhaps part of the upcoming sports complex being built by the town.
The mayor said he hopes a community garden could lead to educational opportunities for the kids teaching not just botany, but also the beginnings of entrepreneurship and accounting through a teen-led project to sell what the garden produces.
“Let’s not just do it for a little bit,” German said. “Let’s see how we could actually expand it and make it an even more productive and bigger learning project that would involve a number of people.”
The mayor is a bit more hesitant on the idea of bringing in a new coffee shop. Although he said he is happy to see the teens getting involved and coming up with plans for things they want, he expressed concern about how a new coffee shop could affect the town’s existing businesses, such as Thanks A Latte on South Main Street. He said he wants YAC to seek a full economic assessment of the proposed Dutch Bros. franchise before approving plans.
But even if some of the teens’ goals don’t bear fruit, the mayor sees their attempt to make something happen as a positive in its own right.
“If nothing more, just going through the process and having interaction with the council would be a positive thing all the way around,” German said. “These are the questions that you’re going to have to deal with. These are the kinds of decisions the council has to deal with: What is your proposal? What kind of contact have you made with people? And so on. I see a lot of positives as a result of that.”
Garcia shares the mayor’s concern that the Dutch Bros. proposal may not work out as easily as the teens hope, but nevertheless sees their interest in the project as a positive even if it does not pan out.
“It’s a win-win situation, because if they succeed in bringing a business to Camp Verde, it’s good for the economy, they can say that they did it, they’re happy because it’s a business they want to support,” said Garcia. “But if they fail, they still win because that’s experience. That’s real-world experience, because when they go to a new project they can say, ‘OK, this didn’t work before. What can we do different this time with this other businesses?’ Failure is one of the greatest teachers. I’m not hoping that they fail, but if they do fail, it’s not a loss.”
In addition to plans for the garden and the Dutch Bros. franchise, YAC has expressed interest in forming an LGBTQ group for youth in the community.
“I know a lot of people who would like to get support on that and talk to people about those issues but aren’t able to because a lot of people aren’t accepting of that yet,” Rodriguez said at the town council meeting. “We just want to give them a safe place where they can be themselves.”
YAC has only been in existence for about a month at this point, so the goals so far are merely what teens have suggested at the first few meetings. But those involved hope to come up with new and varied ideas in the future. “We have to give them parameters as far as what is feasible to do, but we really want them to be in charge of what the group gets involved with,” Garcia said. “The shape of the group, the future of the group — we want them to be self-sufficient.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
