BUCYRUS – Emma Crawford has the spirit.

The Wynford High School cheerleader is a veteran on the sidelines cheering on the Royals, but she’s also rooting for Bucyrus – and what its yearlong Bicentennial celebration means for the future of her hometown and generations to come.

Emma, 16, is a junior at Wynford, where she does all of her classes online. But from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday, she’s a familiar face at Bucyrus City Hall, where she’s an administration secretary in the mayor’s office and a member of the city’s Bicentennial Commission.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I have learned so much through the past year and a half,” said Emma, one of three children of Timothy and Ashley Crawford of Bucyrus. “I just have a close relationship with everybody there. I’ll try to do anything anybody asks me to do.”

Much of her work is behind the scenes – scanning court cases for the law director, preparing meeting agendas, and updating social media pages. She’s definitely the go-to person for Kelli Patterson, the administrative assistant, and Bicentennial coordinator.

“She is fantastic at everything I show her, and she takes the lead on so many aspects of the Bicentennial,” said Patterson. “Emma has been absolutely crucial with the social media side of the Bicentennial. She digs in and does everything to make everything a success.”

Emma isn’t on the city payroll. Her position is funded by Goodwill Industries, and her job coach through the program lined up the interview in February 2020 when she was just a freshman. “I was really nervous at first,” Emma recalled.

“But I think Kelli saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself.”

She started work the following Monday after school and was just settling into the job and the city hall routine when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing her and other employees to stay home. “I kept asking Kelli, ‘Can I come back to work yet? When can I come back? Did the mayor say I could come back yet?’”

Since returning, Emma has been answering phones, digitizing old city files, and taking a more active role with the Bicentennial and its events, beginning with the online mixology class in March. Launching a Facebook page for the Bicentennial to draw in younger residents was also her idea.

Emma is now a regular at the Commission’s luncheon meetings and is busy accepting reservations for the upcoming Gala – the farewell New Year’s Eve event at the Lofts at Pickwick Place. On Tuesdays, she also takes a psychology class through the University of Findlay.

“I like seeing all the happy faces, people enjoying the events, and meeting business owners,” said Emma, who hopes to attend the University of Alabama following graduation in 2023. “Everybody at city hall, they’re like my second family. It’s just been a great experience overall.”

And a win-win for the city.

“I treat this program like a mentoring program, but Emma is so highly motivated that she has turned out to be such an asset to all of us here at city hall,” Patterson said. “She will be at the helm of the next celebration.
She is the next generation, and the Commission is very thankful for her.”