The Carmel Mayor’s Youth Council (CMYC) is working with city officials to make informational videos for Carmel residents.

Jack Joliet, member of the video-making committee and senior, said, “The CMYC got a request from the engineering department at the mayor’s office that they wanted us to help make some promotional and informational videos that they could post on their social media and their website, just informing the community about various topics. Some of them are supposed to be fun and promotional for the mayor and different aspects of the community, and some of them, like the one we worked on this fall about wastewater and what’s safe to put down your drain, are informational.”

According to Joshua Kirsh, planning commissioner, park board officer and engineering administrator for the city of Carmel, he oversees the project, which began last summer. He said he also provides ideas about content for the videos, but the students of the committee did all the filming and editing for the finished video.

“In the world we live in today, so much of the information we get is through content created on social media, whether it’s informational or for pure fun. I wanted to get some ideas out there in the public mindset and it seemed like a real natural fit to lean on the skillset of your generation that’s currently in CHS to make really clever, fun, interesting content, and like I said, they’ve totally done it,” Kirsh said. “I can’t wait until this video comes out and people start to see it because I think that these videos are going to be really cool and well-received.”

Joliet said the video-making process  has been a great learning experience.

“We first went to the wastewater facility and got some transitional shots to tie information together and get a better visual, and we also interviewed the head of the plant. We strung those together into a video that’s coherent and that the community can understand and ultimately hopefully act on. The video was about two minutes long, and I believe it is set to be published in the next few months,” Joliet said.

Joliet also said they are planning ahead for future videos.

“We are about to start, hopefully, two videos. One is just a promotional video for the CMYC and telling the community what we do, and the other one we’re hoping to do is about the overall vision for roundabouts in the community and just helping citizens understand where their money is going to in creating those roundabouts and the whole process behind it.”

Looking forward, Kirsh said he hopes this project will continue and become an ongoing series of informational videos for the community.

“There is no end. I’m hoping that as long as there is interest in making these videos, we’ll always find fresh, new content to add to the library,” Kirsh said. “I hope residents or community members learn something that they wouldn’t have otherwise, and that it maybe puts a smile on their face as well.”