Being elected into office by my peers has definitely been one of the biggest privileges of my life.

I have always loved making new friends and taking leadership roles in school and in my community. Whenever I entered high school, I discovered that the only way to change the world was through my generation. I also discovered that I wanted to be one of those people who take part in the change, so I ran for class president.

It was a stressful two weeks of elections, and the anticipation began eating away at me; however, the votes were finally cast and I received an email from one of my class sponsors, Mrs. Miller, stating I had won the election. In addition to that, I would be in office with my pals, Gabby Dueing (Vice-president), Lauren Bilbrey (Treasurer), and Grace Jansen (Secretary).

The work began in early August of 2018. With weekly meetings and an amazing team, the class of 2021 devised a plan to not only win homecoming, but also get out of debt from the previous year. Every officer posted on social media inviting all Windsor students in our graduating class to help. By the second meeting, we had 20+ helpers. I knew it was going to be a good year.

On the morning of the homecoming parade, we rolled down the street with a large “Cocoa Puff” on a stick and one million things to do. However, when 12 pm hit, we had the win in the bag. That day the class of 2021 walked away with a first place win and bragging rights over every grade in the Windsor district.

I knew work couldn’t stop there though. I teamed up with Dough Depot and began a pretzel fundraiser that has raised our class over $1,000 in two months. Not only are we out of debt, but we will have a large budget for next year’s float as well.

Luckily, Windsor has such a close community, so any time I have needed help there has been the senior and junior class presidents, Emily Shaul and Adam Marler, to help me, and this year’s freshman class president, Maggie Funston, to push me to do better.

Whenever talking to them about their term in office, I learned so much.

Funston said, “Homecoming could’ve gone better, but it also could’ve gone a lot worse… However, we received so much help.”

I also learned about fundraising from the junior class.

Marler said, “We work with Kona Ice and they give us a percentage of proceeds every time they come to the high school during Owl Time.”

Most importantly, Shaul continues to remind us all about why we do, what we do.

Shaul said, “I just want everyone to know, it doesn’t matter what you do, what you are involved in, what you look like, anyone could be a great class president with hard work and determination.”