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Connecticut's Kid Governor tours 5th grade classrooms for potential future candidates

Connecticut's Kid Governor Election Rally Bus Tour begins.

CROMWELL, Conn. — The 2024 election might be over but a new one has begun. The "Connecticut’s Kid Governor Election Rally Bus Tour" is now on a roll, stopping at schools across the state.

Aboard the bus is the Connecticut Kid Governor, 11-year-old Christiano Almeida, from Southington, and his cabinet full of fellow sixth graders. The premise of the bus tour is to engage fifth graders in civics and raise awareness for kids’ most important platforms.

Serenity Zaebst, the state coordinator for the Kid Governor program in Connecticut, said, “Our program, along with the Connecticut Democracy Center, as well as Connecticut’s Old Statehouse – our goal is really to create lifetime pathways to civic engagement.”

After getting off the coach bus, Almeida spoke to fifth graders at Woodside Elementary School, one of four stops he was making with the tour for the day.

“It’s an amazing civics program that can teach kids to learn about the government," Almeida said. "It’s a way we really can connect with kids.”

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The Kid Governor Election Rally Bus Tour is visiting eight schools over a two-day period from Hartford down to Bridgeport and working to attract more kid candidates.

The new Connecticut Kid Governor and their cabinet will be announced in the middle of this month, but no exact date has been named yet. The election is always open for fifth-grade students.

Zaebst added, “This gives students a way to start participating in and think about where they will be in a few years when they turn 18 and they get to vote.”

To learn more about the Connecticut Kid Governor Program, which is part of a national initiative, click here.

Jimmy Altman is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at jaltman@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram

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