Wisconsin Civics Games, created by Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, engage students to be citizens

Students face off at the first Wisconsin Civics Games.
(Photo from Wisconsin Newspaper Association)

The Wisconsin Civics Games guide tells why the exercise exists: "Prior to the 1960s, three courses in civics and government were common in American high schools and encouraged students to explore the role of citizens and discuss current issues. Today, such courses are rare. In 2017, three in five Wisconsin municipalities reported an average of 1 or fewer candidates for each village board or city council seat. A lack of knowledge in civic affairs makes individuals less likely to be active, engaged citizens. It's a result that has been felt by municipalities across Wisconsin."

In response to these knowledge gaps, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation created the games in 2019, and more than 100 students from 25 schools participated. During the games, students heard from several local officials, newspaper editors, state legislators, the state Supreme Court chief justice and the governor. They even received a congratulatory letter from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. After all the preparation and two days of competition, the team from Platteville High School was named the first-ever Wisconsin Civics Games champion. Each member of the team was awarded a $2,000 scholarship to a Wisconsin college or university. 

After a pandemic hiatus, the Games are back for 2023, and follow the same format and scholarship offering for the winning team. The Games format can be reproduced by other communities that would like to engage young adults in interactive civics. 

WNAF's program contains the Civics Games Guide, with structure and rules; a website; sample registration for student teams; and a booklet for students to study: The Framework of Your Wisconsin Government.

The set-up is similar to a Scholastic Bowl or College Bowl, with timed questions and a buzzer.

Sample question: City and village governments in Wisconsin have been given wide-ranging powers to deal with providing services. A 1924 constitutional amendment granted them authority known as "home rule." What is "home rule" and what are these locally enacted laws called?
Answer:   Home rule is when a city or village may do things the way it wants unless the state constitution prohibits it - or if it is something of statewide concern that the legislature should handle. These locally enacted laws are called ordinances.

The games have volunteer and sponsorship opportunities for teachers, parents, community members and local businesses.

David Sawyer remembered as a changer of lives through challenges to build confidence; helped start AmeriCorps

By Al Cross

Director and Professor, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, University of Kentucky 

David Sawyer, a Kentucky-grown back-to-the-lander who ran a student-service program at Berea College, helped start AmeriCorps and became an international consultant on the environment, civic engagement and a wide range of other topics, was remembered fondly Saturday as someone who changed people’s lives.

“He centered his life’s work on service, right livelihood,” longtime friend Peter Hille, president of the Mountain Association, said at a memorial service in Berea’s Union Church for Sawyer, who died Nov. 25 at his home in Portland, Oregon, at 71.

Hille said Sawyer took the beauty and suffering of life and “held them as if they were high-voltage cables, and with that current thrumming through him, he just glowed, didn’t he? David was incandescent, and he burned with the intensity of that truth.”

Hille and Sawyer, a Lexington native, met in the 1970s as neighbors, two of many who had moved to rural Kentucky to follow alternative lifestyles and try to live off the land.

David Hartwell Sawyer III

Sawyer became director of the Students for Appalachia service program at Berea, and when Bill Clinton became president and wanted to start a national service program for young people, the White House asked him to help start the pilot project started before Congress actually created AmeriCorps.

“We were chosen to train 50 people to train the first participants of the AmeriCorps program,” his widow, Jennifer Sawyer, said at the service. “That to me is the thing that will live on about David the most. He changed people’s lives.”

And not just with AmeriCorps. Most of the 15 speakers at the service recalled times when Sawyer turned their lives around.

Professor and therapist Blake Jones of Midway, Ky., said Sawyer “believed in us when we couldn’t believe in ourselves,” always using their last names when he got serious about something they should do. Jones recalled this exchange:
“Jones, I want you to be the student director at SFA.”
“I’m sorry, David, I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Yes, you can, and you will.”

“David called himself a Buddhist Christian and I just assumed that’s just what they did; they just said stuff and just walked away. . . . So I became the student director," Jones told the crowd. “I needed unconditional love and I needed accountability, and he gave both those things to me.”

Lisa Perkins-Orta spoke at the service. (Photo from Zoom)

Lisa Perkins-Orta, an art therapist in Huntington, W. Va., told a similar story.

“He saw in me something I never knew existed,” she said, recalling how she came to his home for an SFA staff retreat and “I started crying because of how it smelled. It smelled like my Mamaw’s house and I hadn’t been home for a long time.” Without asking her permission, Sawyer told the group the story: “Perkins came in here and just wept.”

“He just bared me in front of God and everybody,” Perkins said. “That moment gave me the life lesson that who I am and what I am experiencing is worth something. . . . That was the first time that I ever saw my tears as something strong. . . . I was a little girl from Webbville, Kentucky, who didn’t want to keep on being in Webbville, Kentucky. Because of his belief, I became who I am.”

After a decade at Berea, Sawyer facilitated other national leadership programs, a global conference on climate change, and spent four years working with the BP energy company, coaching senior leaders, designing the cultural dimension of its merger with Arco. He was executive-in-residence for Kansas City’s Kauffman Foundation, promoting citizen engagement and civic innovation; the first executive director of Social Venture Partners Portland, and chief culture officer for gDiapers, maker of the world's first flushable and compostable diaper. He co-founded Converge, a network of consultants who help form social-impact networks, and at his death was president of Context, a consultancy on strategy, leadership and culture. He worked in many fields, including sustainable agriculture, education reform, national service, social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, the emerging green economy, and multisector collaboration.

Some of this material appeared in the obituary published on The Rural Blog Nov. 30.

David Sawyer, who built an international consulting career on his work in rural Kentucky and Appalachia, dies at 71

David Hartwell Sawyer (Photo via Legacy.com)

David Sawyer, who built an international consulting career on his work in rural Kentucky and Appalachia, died Nov. 25 in of heart failure in Portland, Oregon, after a year of declining health. He was 71.

Sawyer was president of Context, a consultancy on strategy, leadership and culture, and a cofounder of Converge, a network of consultants who help form social-impact networks. He worked in many fields, including sustainable agriculture, education reform, national service, social entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, the emerging green economy, and multisector collaboration.

For a decade, Sawyer directed leadership and service-learning programs at Berea College in Kentucky, earning him the nation's highest award for voluntary service from the White House. He designed Save the Children's Appalachian Teen Leadership Program and traveled to India to meet with the Dalai Lama to help design a Tibetan refugee education program at Berea. He worked with the Clinton administration to help launch Americorps and facilitated The New Generation Training Program and other national leadership programs.

Sawyer spent four years working with BP, coaching senior leaders, designing the cultural dimension of the BP-ARCO merger, and facilitating a conference on global climate change in Washington, D.C. He was executive-in-residence for the Kauffman Foundation, promoting citizen engagement and civic innovation; first executive director of Social Venture Partners Portland, and was chief culture officer for gDiapers, maker of the world's first flushable and compostable diaper.

"Though Sawyer's professional accomplishments are vast, his lasting impact lives in his deep love for his people, his community, and our planet," his obituary says. "Sawyer was a dedicated and generous friend to many. He was clever and wise, fun and funny, deeply serious, and eternally committed to creating positive futures for all. His life's work could perhaps be summed up by a simple tattoo on his arm that read: 'maximum positive impact'."

Sawyer, whom his Kentucky family called "Buzz," is survived by his brother, religious artist Stephen Shelby Sawyer of Versailles, Ky. Their cousins include Diane Sawyer of ABC News.

UPDATE, Dec. 4: A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, at Union Church in Berea. Live streaming will be available and a reception will follow; details to come. Organizer Peter Hille writes, "In lieu of flowers we request that you consider making a contribution in David's honor to an organization of your choice. Or, if you prefer, send flowers to someone you love."