In the race for Tacoma mayor, Victoria Woodards has collected 52.6% of the votes against opponent Jim Merritt since Tuesday night.

Annie Wright Schools played a role in the campaign process. The Upper School Model UN/Global Action activity hosted a student led forum for the candidates on October 12. Annie Wright students, parents, faculty and staff attended the event.

Senior member of the activity Mari Beaurpere helped organize the details. She reflected on the planning process and the importance of the forum:

“Before forming the questions, it was important to get a grasp on all the issues occurring in Tacoma. Topics ranging from infrastructure to the Northwest Detention Center are all prominent issues that were addressed in the form of presentations. We convened, sharing our findings with not only the rest of the Global Action activity, but with the school as a whole.

This spread of knowledge throughout the community was followed by questions. After this, Ms. Everitt and the Red Ties combed through the questions, looking for a variety of topics and variety of ages. We then simply ensured all logistical aspects of the event were in place. Because of these steps, I believe the mayoral forum was a success!

My main takeaways from the mayoral forum are that politicians are truly accessible to the people, especially at the local level. It was a great experience to better understand their commitment to the communities needs, and how they ought to reflect our ideals. I was privileged to have a significant role in the planning to completion of the event. I hope that skills learned in this experience can inspire me, the MUN/global action activity, and others for other topics that interest us in the future.”