Catlin senior organizes town hall meeting

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August 31, 2010

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL Commercial-News The Commercial-News Tue Aug 31, 2010, 03:00 AM CDT

DANVILLE — A senior at Catlin High School is turning a class project into a tool for voters in Vermilion County.

Seventeen-year-old Will Nesbitt of Catlin has coordinated a town hall meeting featuring the Republican and Democratic candidates for two local races in the Illinois General Assembly and the county’s congressional race. The event is slated for 4 p.m. Saturday at the Catlin Fire Station, 107 E. Davis St., in Catlin.

For Nesbitt, the town hall meeting offers a chance for people to find out where their candidates stand — information he said some local residents don’t know enough about.

“People should get to know their candidates,” said Nesbitt.

The meeting is the result of a project from the school’s Service and Community class. It requires students to complete a 30-hour assignment that is beneficial to the community.

The idea Nesbitt came up with is an easy one to get into for the Catlin student, who admits he is a fan of politics.

“I love politics and the government process,” he said. “I wanted to do something that I could enjoy for my services project.”

Attending the meeting will be candidates in the race for the 104th District seat in the Illinois House, Republican Chad Hays and Democrat Mike Puhr; candidates for the 53rd District Illinois Senate seat, Democrat Mike Frerichs and Republican Al Reynolds; and 15th Congressional District candidates Tim Johnson, Republican, and David Gill, a Democrat.

Nesbitt said he expected the project to be difficult and worked on it throughout the summer. During that time he learned the key to reaching out to the candidates.

“Persistence is the ticket,” he said. “You keep calling if they don’t call back. Eventually, they commit to coming.”

Plans for the class project weren’t limited to just the local races, however. Nesbitt said U.S. Senate candidates Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Alexi Giannoulias both declined and calls to the candidates for Illinois governor and lieutenant governor were unsuccessful.

Nesbitt said a few of the candidates he reached were surprised when he revealed his age. Frerichs said he was impressed to learn of Nesbitt’s project.

“It’s great that students would be so involved and they are taking leadership roles,” he said, adding youths should participate and voice their own opinions.

The event will feature some standard questions regarding current issues of education, funding and job creation as well as questions from the audience.

“I’m hoping to have some good questions so that they can get right to the point and not work around and give the people the answers that they want to hear and want to know.”

Nesbitt has worked to spread word about the town hall meeting around the village of Catlin with his goal to get 100 people to attend the event.

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