Grade 6 Stouffville student is Mayor for the Day

Lily Jones was picked up from Barbara Reid Public School by Mayor Iain Lovatt and a town fire truck

Yorkregion.com
March 9, 2020
Simon Martin

Imagine getting picked up from school by the mayor and a fire truck. That’s what happened for Lily Jones on  March 3. The Grade 6 student at Barbara Reid Public School got picked up at 2:30 p.m. by Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt and a town fire truck while her classmates looked on.

Jones was the winner of the Mayor of the Day contest.  

“I definitely loved going on the fire truck. It was really cool,” Lily said.

She discovered the contest after one of her friends told her she was working on an essay. “I decided it would be something fun to try,” she said

As part of the day, Lovatt escorted her on several tours of town facilities including the operations centre, Station 51, the leisure centre, the library and town hall.

Following dinner in the mayor’s office, Lily ended her term as mayor by opening the 7 p.m. council meeting while sitting in the mayor’s chair.

“Lily is a firecracker! She is the exact reason why we began this contest last year,” Lovatt said. “Lily’s essay was incredibly well written out and focused on improving Stouffville’s environmental sustainability -- one suggestion she had included having high school students achieve their volunteer hours by going door-to-door helping to educate residents on how to properly recycle … talk about well thought out!”

Environmental sustainability is very important to Lily who also voiced her desire in the essay for the town to switch some of its flowers to perennials which are better for the environment, she said.  

“I have learned so much new and interesting information about the many pieces that make our own run,” Jones said. “I am very grateful for the experiences I had as Stouffville’s Mayor for the Day.”

Open to Whitchurch-Stouffville students in Grades 5 to 7, the Mayor for the Day contest launched in late January and gave students an opportunity to share their ideas of how to make Stouffville an even better place to live by either submitting an essay or a three-minute video.