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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

ALABASTER – With their right hand held aloft, a group of teens invested in learning more about the city they call home repeated an oath as they were sworn in as members of the 2025-2026 Alabaster Teen Council.

The newest Alabaster Teen Council took their oaths and were sworn in by Mayor Scott Brakefield on Monday, April 28 at the start of that night’s City Council meeting.

“It offers our young teens a leadership opportunity,” Brakefield said. “It also offers us as a city, an opportunity to show them what all their city has to offer.”

The mission of the Alabaster Teen Council is to provide local youth with an opportunity to impact the community while learning about local government and to create active and informed teenage citizens. The program intends to transform their view of the role of local government by exposing the teen council to municipal responsibilities, volunteerism and through executing outreach peer events.

“When I was growing up here in this little, small community, the last place that I ever thought I would be was here,” Brakefield said. “I did not see Alabaster as a viable option for me when I was 17-18 years old but having the teen council and having our future leaders spend a little time with us, hopefully, we are showing them that Alabaster is a viable option for you to return to, to invest in your community, to raise your children at, to take advantage of a great school system.”

The Alabaster Teen Council first began under the leadership of Alabaster Mayor Marty Handlon in 2014 as a way to engage the city’s youth and educate them on what it takes to run the city. The program has grown over the years with the inaugural teen council consisting of only 12 members and the latest iteration now featuring 34 members.

Each year, the teen council is open to all Alabaster high school students, including public, private and homeschool. The students each serve a one-year term on the council that begins and expires each year in April.

The council aims to create an informed group of students who are familiar with municipal issues, to develop lasting relationships between students and city leaders, sustain youth presence in a broad range of impact and decision-making areas across the community, develop future civic leaders and to organize events for community teens.

• Kaelci Thuri
• Sully Cole
• Thuy Nguyen
• Hanna Moseley
• Lauren Blackmon
• Jaelyn Gilleylen
• Allie Ellis
• Zayden Felton
• Simone Jones
• Cooper Southern
• Holly Norwood
• Emily Reid
• Brody Logan
• Samantha Edwards
• Ada Hasenbein
• Morgan McNichols
• Madison McNichols
• Leah McKay
• Hannah McKay
• Kayla Brown
• Will Harvey
• Zarah Ryan-Coker
• Sophie Davis
• Kassidy Lee
• Sadie Walls
• McKenna Davis
• Olivia Harmon
• Brooklyn Oliver
• Conner Kinnell
• Sailor Higgins
• Noah Quang
• Nic Gonzalez
• Logan Binzer
• Carson Blackmon