This February, St. Louis Park resident and sixth-grader Claire Westlund was one of four Minnesotans to win the 2023 Mayor for a Day Essay Contest as chosen by the League of Minnesota Cities (LMC).

Claire’s essay was one of more than 500 submissions from across Minnesota. Each year, the LMC contest invites Minnesota students in grades 4 – 6 to imagine being mayor for a day and share their ideas on improving city services. LMC communications staff choose 25 – 30 finalists annually. The winners and honorable mentions are then selected among the finalists by the League’s current president and executive director. For her accomplishment, Claire was honored with a proclamation at the March 18 St. Louis Park City Council meeting.

Claire’s parents, Emily and Tom, said their daughter is a natural leader and has always enjoyed heading up group projects and participating in civic engagement, like joining her neighbors to pick up litter in area parks or discussing current events she’s learned about in school.

Claire attends St. Louis Park Middle School and participates in soccer, theater and choir. She also enjoys party planning and even planned a surprise retirement party for her school principal in third grade and a surprise baby shower for her teacher in fifth grade.

Claire said she’s been interested in writing since second grade and wrote the Mayor for a Day essay in one evening. In her essay, she emphasized concerns about pollution and preserving a clean environment. That inspired her Mayor for a Day essay, which addressed the actions she would take as mayor to see nearby Lamplighter Pond cleaned up and depolluted.

In March, St. Louis Park Mayor Nadia Mohamed visited Claire’s Individuals and Societies class at St. Louis Park Middle School. The mayor and students discussed what the young people of St. Louis Park envision for the city’s future.

Claire, 11, has been a resident of St. Louis Park her whole life. She hopes to pursue writing, architecture and design in her future.

Read the winning essays, including Claire's essay, on the LMC's website.