The Pelham City Council went to the kids April 19, as the body held its annual Youth Government Day.

Following the regular meeting, winners of the Valley Intermediate School Youth Government Day elections took their turn at city leadership, holding a mock council meeting.

“It means a lot to the city council, myself and to the city employees to have you here,” Mayor Don Murphy said in his council comments as he welcomed the kids to the meeting. “Everybody that works in the city looks forward to this day.”

Prior to the meeting, the students toured city facilities and enjoyed a lunch prepared by the Pelham Fire Department.

“In addition to putting out fires and saving peoples’ lives, our firefighters are some pretty good cooks,” Murphy said.

The students’ day culminated in the mock meeting, where 19 students replaced city council members, department heads and even the mayor.

The students ran the meeting, and each got a turn to tell what they learned throughout the day.

The winners of the VIS election were: Mayor, Claudia McGill; Council members, Brooke Bradley, Ally Braswell, Bailey Breland, Molly Stephens and Caroline McPherson; City Clerk/Finance Director, Riley Taylor; Human Resources Director, Faith Nolen; Director of Revenue, Brittany Reid; City Engineer, Daniel Palacios; Building Official, Ricardo Gutierrez; Director of Public Works, Sawyer Martin; Police Chief, Megan Crawford; Fire Chief, Cameron Covington; Librarian, Lindsey Waggoner; Director of Parks and Recreation, Chandler Speights; Director of Ballantrae Golf Club, Jacob Messler; President of the Chamber of Commerce, Savannah Mercer; and Marketing Director, Keeton Armstrong.

After the spending the day with the kids, Murphy had nothing but praise for the school’s leadership.

“The right people are running that school,” Murphy said.

In other actions, the council:

— Rescheduled the May 17 meeting to May 24 and the July 5 meeting to July 12 due to a scheduling conflict and a holiday.

— Murphy thanked Deputy Clerk Marsha Yates for her work in organizing the Pelham Pride Day. The day brought together 371 volunteers, 100 more than last year. The volunteers picked up 280 bags of garbage throughout the city.