By Jennifer Moody
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Saturday, April 19, 2008 12:00 am
Don Andrews of Brownsville and social studies teacher Dennis Rector of West Albany High School were honored this year for their service to the YMCA Youth in Government program.
Andrews became involved with the program 42 years ago and was its state director for more than 20 years. Rector spent 18 years on the program's board of directors. Both are retiring.
The two received their awards during the most recent Youth in Government session, March 6-8 in Salem.
Andrews received a plaque and a gift certificate for a getaway to Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast.
The honor that touched him most, however, was a program decision to name an award after him. The "Don Andrews Memorial Award" will now be given to the piece of youth legislation that best represents the YMCA's core values of honesty, caring, respect and responsibility.
"That one about tore me apart," Andrews said. "Although I'm kind of concerned about the 'memorial' part."
Rector, a 15-year board member of the state program committee, received a distinguished service award from the YMCA Youth and Government Program Committee. It was presented by the two former youth governors from West Albany High School, Amanda Dalton (1997) and Sarah Coburn (2003).
YMCA Youth in Government participants spend three days at the state Capitol, working to pass "legislation" as they learn how government works.
Andrews said he loved seeing the new ideas introduced at each legislative session.
"All of these kids have a real passion to figure out what's going on in Oregon, how to improve it, how to change it," he said. "Some amazing stuff came out of these kids."
It was a Youth in Government student, he said, who came up with the idea some 20 years ago of holding a contest for children to design a new license plate. A state lawmaker picked up on the suggestion and helped make it law.
"Every year," Andrews said, "I came home knowing that Oregon's future was in very good hands."
Rector said he stayed involved with the program for so long because of the way it lives up to its slogan, "Democracy needs to be learned by each generation."
"It's about as hands-on as we have in the state," Rector said.
Only two mid-valley high schools - West Albany and Central Linn - are regular participants, Rector said. He'd like to see more schools get involved.
"There's some real excellent debate, give and take on the floor of the House and Senate," he said. "They always come back very enthused."
Twelve West Albany students participated this year. They were seniors Katie Egan, Riley Egan, Zach Dunn, Colin Dunn and Christina Nguyen; juniors Bracken Tate and Sam Peters; sophomores Nathan Reid, Matt Schueller, Tucker Keuter and Madeline Egan; and freshman Harrison Reid.