Four Mokena teens participated in the first Governor’s Teen Summit in Springfield recently.
Katie Boyne, 15, Alex Mayer, 15, Brandon Windham, 16, and Robert Konrath, 15, all students at Lincoln-Way High School, were among 100 students in grades 7 through 10 selected to meet with state officials late last month and offer their views on problems facing teens, particularly substance abuse.
All the students are involved in school activities, and Boyne, Meyer and Windham are also members of the Mokena Area Youth Commission.
The session late last month was opened by Illinois First Lady Lura Lynn Ryan and featured both large-group and small-group discussions of the influence of advertising on teens’ choices to use or refuse tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, ways of saying “no” and local happenings in schools and communities.
Teens were asked to offer their own suggestions for advertising messages that would have a positive influence on their peers.
The Teen Summit was sponsored by the state Futures for Kids program, which is a statewide resource organization dealing with health, safety and education.
The four Mokena participants were selected from applications submitted to the InTouch office in Frankfort Township. InTouch (Illinois Network To Organize the Understanding of Community Health) is funded by the Department of Human Services.