Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc Recognizes Elena Tipton, Connecticut's First Kid Governor

Before her inauguration at the Old State Capitol building on Friday, January 29, Mayor Marcia A. Leclerc personally congratulated Elena Tipton, a 5th grader from O'Connell Elementary School in East Hartford, who began a full-year term as Connecticut's First Kid Governor. In addition to her scholarly duties, Elena will be present for various Old State House events throughout the year and will serve as a spokeswoman at various throughout the state promoting her "Campaign of Kindness."

Tipton, who went head-to-head with hundreds of fifth-graders throughout the state, made her campaign stand out by outlining three points aimed at spreading kindness throughout the state of Connecticut. Those points included: Making the 13th day of every month "Kindness Day" and creating a blog where students and schools can share the "awesome" acts of kindness that they are doing, working with kids and adults to bring Christian Bucks' Buddy Benches to school playgrounds in Connecticut (Elena has set a goal for 10 schools in our state to work toward getting Buddy Benches) and listening to the students of Connecticut to find out great things happening at their schools, so that we can all recognize and celebrate how awesome kids in Connecticut are.

In honor of Elena's election as the first Connecticut Kid Governor, Mayor Leclerc and the East Hartford Town Council will be honoring her with a proclamation at their regular meeting on February 2, at 7:30 p.m. For more information on the Kid Governor program and Elena's platform of kindness, please click here.