The members of the St. Paul Elementary Civics Club presented the results of their service projects to the city council in its May 19 meeting. The students worked in teams to design and complete community service projects in four categories, physical, historical, creative and digital. (Photo by Morgan Ahart)

SALEM — The members of the St. Paul Elementary Civics Club shared the results of their community service projects with Salem’s elected leaders at the city council’s May 19 meeting.

Formed in September by Club Sponsor Emmy Prosko, the civics club was started to inspire and equip St. Paul students to be the next generation of service-centered leaders and become involved in their community. At the meeting, the students presented city council with the results of team service projects in four categories, physical, historical, creative and digital, which Prosko said had been designed by the students to benefit the community while exercising their personal talents and interests.

“Tonight you all get the good part. You get to see and hear about all the learning, planning and work that students have been doing,” said Prosko.

As part of those efforts, Prosko previously addressed council in its June 10, 2025, meeting to request the members of the city council consider serving as mentors to help guide students in the creation and planning of service projects that would put what they had learned about public service into practice and benefit the community, a call which was answered by City Councilmen Mike Weir, Trent Tice and Jim Harrington. Weir, Tice and Harrington all told their fellow council members that the students had dedicated themselves to their projects and exceeded their expectations.

“It was a pleasure working with you all. Thank you for your hard work,” Harrington said.

The physical project team said that they initially proposed painting wooden benches at the parks, but since the benches had already been stained, it was unclear how well the paint would hold up over time. Instead, they focused on helping with cleaning and landscaping, collecting and disposing of litter, painting rocks, and cleaning up signage to highlight and beautify the space.

The historical project group created interactive standees of influential figures from Salem’s history including world-famous watercolor painter Charles Burchfield, prominent abolitionists and women’s suffrage advocates Sarah and Angelina Grimke, and Abbie Whinnery, a Quaker who famously denied the presence of six escaped slaves hiding in her home to a slavecatcher in spite of the Quakers’ prohibitions against lying because she believed nobody should be made a slave. They said the goal of their project was to demonstrate that even people from small communities can have wide-reaching and lasting impacts.

The creative project team said they conducted interviews with four residents who have served in the military to document their experiences and service including Prosko and Dr. Marshall Bahr who served in the Army, Tice who served in the Coast Guard, and former councilman Dennis Plegge who served in the Navy. Those stories were compiled into pamphlets which the students distributed during the Salem OH Military Flags dedication ceremony on May 1. They said that the project was intended to educate people about the service of their fellow community members, which can otherwise be overlooked when they return home.

The digital project team said that their goal was to promote community involvement and awareness of the role played by local governments using digital toolsets. The students built an educational website to host informational videos about Salem’s government and leaders, as well as interviews with those leaders including Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey, City Council President Evan Newman, City Councilwoman Sara Baer, Police Chief J.T. Panezott, Fire Chief Scott Mason and Street Foreman Shawn Smith. They said they chose to build a website because of the medium’s ability to reach and be used by residents of all ages, and that they would like to collaborate with the city’s IT department to post a link to it on the city’s website.

Dickey asked the students what they had learned from their service projects, and they said the projects had shown them that even if something doesn’t seem like a major change on the surface, any act of service can be very beneficial to their community.

Prosko said that the civics club would continue meeting in the upcoming 2026-2027 school year, and that the students would continue practicing community leadership by designing and completing another set of service projects.

The city council will meet next at 7 p.m. on June 2.

mahart@mojonews.com