The winner of this year's Mayor for a Day Challenge has come up with an idea meant to keep young cyclists in Airdrie safe.
Airdrie City council announced Arden L'Heureux, a Grade 6 student at C.W. Perry School, had won the 2020 Mayor for a Day Challenge June 1.
“I was really excited and also really shocked because I didn't think I would make it that far,” L'Heureux said. “It was a really big process and really nerve-wracking.”
L’Heureux – an avid cyclist – proposed a bike safety village as a way to improve her community. Her winning idea was inspired by her time living in British Columbia.
“There are so many children in Airdrie, but no all-year programs that teach bike safety for kids,” she said. “I used to live in Penticton, and that's where they had a safety village. I went there two or three times for school and that was a really good experience for me.”
L’Heureux’s proposed safety village would teach children how to ride bikes and basic bike safety, including how to read the road and adhere to stop signs. L'Heureux said she would like the safety village to operate in the summer, spring and fall.
According to Jessica Dudek, youth engagement programmer with the City of Airdrie, L’Heureux’s proposal resonated with the municipality.
“The Airdrie Board of Youth Affairs were quite excited because some of them had heard or experienced safety villages before,” Dudek said. “The mayor and council were excited to see how we could implement something like this in the city.”
L’Heureux is currently planning out the fine details of her proposed safety village.
“I have a lot of stuff in mind for what we can do with it,” she said. “Price, admission fee, money to hire workers, fees for the bikes and just how to keep the program going.”
According to Dudek, the Mayor for a Day Challenge was created in 2012 as a way to engage youth in the local municipal government. This year, the program focused specifically on Grade 6 students to support their curriculum, and asked them to submit innovative ideas on how they could improve their community.
Dudek said as Mayor for a Day, L’Heureux will tour City Hall and different areas of Airdrie, have a lunch meeting with Mayor Peter Brown and co-chair a City council meeting. Because of COVID-19, Dudek was unsure when L’Heureux would be able to fulfil her mayoral duties.
Despite that uncertainty, L’Heureux said her enthusiasm was not dampened.
“I'm just really excited – to do this idea and for the meeting and everything,” she said.
