Florida League of Cities recognizes Ocoee Youth Council

During the Tuesday, May 20 meeting of the Ocoee City Commission, the Ocoee Youth Council was recognized by the Florida League of Cities as one of three winners of its Youth Council Excellence Award, which celebrates exemplary initiatives or projects that have demonstrated innovation, leadership and excellence while making significant contributions to their municipalities.

“Tonight, I am honored to recognize the Ocoee Youth Council … as a winner in the Florida League of Cities’ 2025 Youth Council Excellence Award,” FLC Member Services Administrator Eryn Russell said. “Through this program, the league invited youth councils to showcase initiatives that made a meaningful impact in their community. This is a statewide competition that’s open to all Florida municipal youth councils, and only three projects are selected as winners … The project that was selected as a winner was the Ocoee Youth Council’s initiative to clean up their local cemetery. This project aimed to improve the cemetery’s appearance, help the younger generation connect with the area’s history and to honor an underserved segment of the community through innovative planning, collaboration and hard work.”

Prior to the recognition by the FLC for this project, the Ocoee Youth Council — a group of high school-age students from Ocoee sponsored by the city with the chance to participate in various development opportunities such as job-shadowing, developing and executing service projects and attending special events that enrich their growth as people, citizens and future leaders — shared its year-in-review presentation to the commission; including its work on the cemetery beautification project.

“We decided to visit the Ocoee Cemetery and clean headstones with soap and water,” OYC member Demetrius Molina said during the year-in-review presentation. “We were scrubbing until our sponges fell apart. We chose to refresh the cemetery, because we wanted to serve those no longer with us and create a peaceful place for all that visit the cemetery. We also planted new flowers in front of the sign at the cemetery entrance. I enjoyed this part of the project because I liked serving our community and making it just a little bit more beautiful.”

During its recognition by the FLC, Russell spoke about what stood out the most about OYC’s project submission.

“One of the lines that (OYC included) in (its) submission that really stood out to me said this: ‘Although cemetery clean-ups may not be as noticeable or desirable, they are just as valuable. As a youth council, we wanted to demonstrate that even work that goes unseen by many still matters,’” Russell said. “Their efforts brought new life to a place of deep significance to this community, and it showed respect and care for the legacy of those who came before us, and it’s a project that reflects both civic pride and compassion.”

OYC’s decision to honor and revitalize the Ocoee Cemetery had a sense of reverence to the city’s past that seemed appropriate given the centennial anniversary of the West Orange County municipality.

OYC YEAR IN REVIEW

As a way to conclude its yearlong curriculum, eight members of the Ocoee Youth Council presented its 2024-25 year-in-review to commission during the May 20 meeting. Each student presenter chose an event or city department in which to highlight, share their experience and summarize some of the valuable lessons they learned through said experience. One of the events highlighted was the Descendants’ Dinner. 

“The Descendants’ Dinner is an annual event hosted by HighPoint Church and the city to remember the victims of the Ocoee massacre,” OYC member Zaneta Arthoro said. “It honors those who lost their lives and helps raise awareness about racial equality and social justice. At the dinner, community members, activists and historians came together to share stories, educate others about the past and talk about how we can make things better today. This year’s event was especially meaningful because it included the unveiling of the memorial wall at Unity Park. The Ocoee Youth Council was proud and honored to be a part of both events. We learned a lot about the struggles that descendants faced and how they stayed strong through it all.”

Along with the Descendants’ Dinner, OYC members spoke about their experiences serving at the Ocoee Police Department’s annual Christmas toy drive and the city’s Spring into Conservation event, as well as participating in job shadowing of various city departments and attending special events such as FLC’s Youth Council Legislative Action Days — which saw the group travel to Tallahassee for unique insight into the government’s processes.

After the presentation, OYC’s seven senior members were recognized for their work not only as part of the 420 combined volunteer hours the council contributed to the Ocoee community during the 2024-25 school year but also for all of their accomplishments as they graduate. To congratulate these seniors, the city awarded each of them $250 scholarships per year of participation in the youth council: Four-year member Allison Belemjian, Keystone Academy; two-year members Alonzo Ramessar from Ocoee High and Jayden Sibbitt from Legacy Charter; and one-year members — all from Ocoee High — Gunnar Patterson, Isabella Carreno, Mariska Vyskocilova and Zaneta Arthoro.