9th District teens invited to serve as Senate pages

Senator Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, is accepting applications from teenagers from the Ninth Legislative District who want to spend a week serving as Senate pages during the 2017 legislative session in Olympia. The session began Jan. 9 and is scheduled to end on or before Sunday, April 23.

“This could be the most enjoyable week of work a teenager ever gets – they get a break from their regular school to come to the Capitol, they meet and work with other teens from around the state to help legislators like me do our jobs, and they get paid on top of it,” Schoesler said. “It’s an experience that they’ll always remember.”

While seeing the state legislature in action and learning how laws are made, pages perform many tasks that allow legislators and staff to focus on legislative duties. These may include delivering documents and letters to offices and presenting the colors at the start of a legislative day. Pages also spend two hours each day in Page School learning about the legislative process.

The Ninth Legislative District covers Adams, Garfield, Whitman and Asotin counties and parts of Franklin and Spokane counties. Students interested in becoming a Senate page must be at least 14 years old and have not yet turned 17. They need to fill out an application form and send it to Schoesler’s Olympia office at PO Box 40409, Olympia, WA 98504-0409, preferably no later than a month before the session ends.

Students should visit http://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Administration/PageProgram/Pages/default.aspx for application forms and more information about page program requirements. Forms also are available from Krista Winters in Schoesler’s office at winters.krista@leg.wa.gov or (360) 786-7620.