Year Three of Civics Day, and a Visit from Dr. Vivek Murthy

Year 3 of CivicLex's Civics Day was truly one for the books. 432 people, 79 projects, 40+ community advisors, and some very special guests!

This year, Civics Day just happened to overlap with an extended visit to Lexington from former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Over 48 hours, Lisa Adkins, J.D. and I showed Dr. Murthy and his team around Lexington, introducing them to businesses like A Cup of Common Wealth who make social connection a core part of their business model, nonprofits like Seedleaf that create opportunities for neighbors to connect over shared work, and of course, hundreds of Fayette County students who brought their ideas for the future of Lexington to our annual Civics Day.

I was also incredibly honored to moderate a one-on-one conversation with Dr. Murthy about the power of relationships, service, and purpose with community leaders. An enormous thank you to Lilly Weinberg and Knight Foundation for supporting his trip to our community.

We also had another surprise guest at Civics Day in Ross Wiener. We grabbed dinner while he was in town, and spent several hours talking about his deep history in education policy, our work at CivicLex, and how we could better position young people to find a sense of agency in their community through their education.

Some weeks, it can be hard to feel like our work is making a difference. Other weeks, it's crystal clear that it is. This week was one of the latter. It's so hard to be cynical while watching middle school students confidently talk to elected officials about their hopes, dreams, and actionable ideas for Lexington.

I'm so incredibly proud of what Stephanie Mobley has built with our team and our partner at FCPS, Aaron Davis, Ed.S. We've had SO many setbacks with this program — partnerships ended, funding pulled, political roadblocks — and in the face of it all, she's built something that's just so meaningful and beautiful. It's truly incredible.