A Brook Knoll Elementary student became Scotts Valley’s Mayor for the day last Wednesday.
Zoe Vanderwalde — who is going into fifth grade — started her day as mayor around 11 a.m. when Mayor Dene Bustichi and Scotts Valley Police Chief John Weiss picked her up from her home in the classic 1967 Ford Interceptor police car.
“As Mayor you have opportunities to give back to the community and this is a great way for us to do it, we give this little auction prize and it raised money for the schools for other events,” Bustichi said.
Vanderwalde said she was excited about the opportunity to ride in the classic car and experience the duties of mayor for a day.
“There was an auction at Brook Knoll and my mom and dad won it for me,” she said.
For her mayoral lunch, Vanderwalde ate French fries and chicken nuggets at the Back Nine Grill & Bar located at the Inn at Pasatiempo off of Highway 17.
“I cant wait to tell me friends what I did,” Vanderwalde said.
From there, they stopped by the Press-Banner on Scotts Valley Drive before heading over to the SV Police Department for a tour.
“I don’t think she knew she would be leading the Special Olympics Torch Run that day, that was sort of an on the fly decision and ended up being a lot of fun,” Weiss said.
Although Weiss had planned to participate in the run, he decided to accompany the mayor for the day and Bustichi in the classic car instead.
“Everybody would rather see the chief be in the classic car rather than just the mayor,” Bustichi said.
At around 2 p.m., Vanderwalde, Bustichi, and Weiss joined up with the officers and volunteers participating in the Torch Run at the Hilton Hotel. Once the run began, they guided the runners down Scotts Valley Drive, ending at the Glenwood Fire Station.
After the run, Bustichi took the mayor for the day to get some ice-cream and then dropped her off at her home until it was time for the Scotts Valley City Council meeting at 6 p.m.
“She hit the gavel up in the dais and opened the meeting and she lead the initial reports and pledge of allegiance that we do and a moment of silence, and then at some point when we got into the minutia of city government, she bowed out for other things that she needed to do,” Weiss said.
