“Kids today” — it’s a sentiment we hear from time to time, usually preceded or followed by a list of everything wrong with the younger generation.
Depending on your perspective, that can be a long list. But we’d like to offer a different list, one just as long — if not longer — of some of the great things that kids today are up to.
We’ll start with a recent Eagle Scout project to construct a firewood shed at the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, spearheaded by Sage Hill, a Boy Scout from Soldotna. Hill marshalled volunteers for the project and has a plan in place to keep the wood shed stocked, something that will no doubt make a huge difference for a person or family in need during the next cold snap.
We’ve also heard about Jenna Hansen of Nikiski, who uses her reindeer, Scene of the Crash and Comet, to raise funds to benefit homeless youth. And Jessica Roper, a Kenai Central High School graduate and now a paramedic student at Kenai Peninsula College who has raised funds to help provide water rescue training for area first responders. Then there’s the student representatives who have recently joined local city councils — Allie Ostrander in Kenai, and Jackson Blackwell in Soldotna. And the Cook Inlet Academy students who recently spent time helping out in the community.
The list can go on and on. You don’t need to look too far to find area youth volunteering, fundraising, organizing and generally helping make their community a better place.
Sure, they spend too much time attached to their cell phones, their taste in clothes is a little odd and the noise they call music is hard to bear.
But by and large, today’s youth are aware of the world around them and engaged in their community. In fact, we’re excited to see what kids today will be able to accomplish tomorrow.
