LANSING - The Lansing Junior City Council Initiative held a kickoff meeting for its Lansing Teen Voter Registration Challenge, 2001, on Monday at a local high school.

Members of the initiative explained the challenge to about 10 interested high school students and community members in the Eleanor Dorsem Social Room at Eastern High School, 220 N. Pennsylvania Ave.

Through the program, the initiative hopes to register area teenagers so they can vote in upcoming elections.

“Our challenge is to register 100 percent of the 18- to 20-year-olds in Lansing,” said Vincent Villegas, chairman of the board of the initiative’s planning committee. “Every vote is important.”

Michigan’s overall voter turnout was close to 62 percent in the 2000 elections.

The initiative hopes to accomplish its goal by April 1 - in time for voters to cast their ballots on measures important to high school students.

“We’re gonna be pushing the bond proposal that’s coming up and later other city and council elections coming up,” initiative Vice Chairman Brandon Collins said.

Next door to Eastern High School, at Pattengill Middle School, Lansing Mayor David Hollistergave his State of the City address soon after the meeting ended.

“The mayor is going to give an address saying education is the key to a world-class city,” said Collins, a 17-year-old Lansing Everett senior. “(His speech) would be further compounded by the Junior City Council Initiative.”

About nine high school students from every Lansing high school make up the Lansing Junior City Council Initiative, which was started in June with the help of Councilmember Sandy Allen.

“We’re not just thinking of ourselves - we’re thinking of our younger brothers and sisters,” said initiative spokesman Antonio Manning, an Eastern High School 16-year-old. “The voters in general need to get out there and vote. If we have to get out there in the rain and snow, we’re going to do it.

“Every vote counts, as you saw in Florida,” he said, referring to the extended presidential election.

Members are lobbying the Lansing City Council to be officially recognized, removing its “initiative” status.

Manning said the city council isn’t cooperating well.

“We’ve been trying to go to the city council for months and months,” he said. “They’re hesitant. They’re looking at the legal side.”

Lansing Sexton High School student Robert Bennett was another student in the audience.

“I’m just here to view the meeting because it’s interesting. I think what they’re doing needs to get done,” he said. “I think it’s the best way for teens to get their voice heard, to get out and vote.”

However, at 16 years old, Bennett won’t be registering this year.

“I’ll vote every time I need to vote, but right now I can’t,” he said.