Last week, Rep. Eric Pettigrew hosted his daughter, Linda, (left) and his niece, Miracle (right) as pages.
“It was such a treat to have them here last week!” said Rep. Pettigrew.
“Paging is tough, with 8 hour days and hard work. It is great that Linda and Miracle will start to understand the responsibility of having a job and get a chance to meet other civically engaged teens from across the state.”
Pages come to Olympia from all over the state during the legislative session to work and learn about the process. Paging is a long tradition; pages have been coming since here since 1891!
They have a variety of jobs on campus, from ceremonial tasks such as presenting the flags to operational chores like distributing amendments during floor sessions. Their work is vital to the operation of the Legislature.
“This has been a busy and exhausting week!” said daughter Linda. “I’ve had a great time running errands, being on the House floor and getting to know my representatives. I even got to introduce my own bill on school nutrition. All in all this has been an eye-opening and fun week!”
Pages also attend school 2 hours a day and learn about the legislative process – write their own bills, hold committee hearings and floor action and hear from staff and legislators on campus.
“Civics education is crucial to future community engagement,” said Rep. Pettigrew. “I hope Linda and Miracle will take the experiences, work-ethic and knowledge they gained this week and home to their classmates and schools.”
If you or a friend or family member is interested in paging, check out this video from the legislature.