Leadership Washington starts up, visits historical sites

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, Sept. 13, the Leadership Washington Class of [’23-24 met for the first time to start their year off.

The group started their morning with an icebreaker welcoming all the students. The leaders of the day, Jenny Morgan, Dylan Smith and Kara Booth used the first hour to welcome the group and have them work on getting to know each other by playing a fun game and asking them a number of questions about Washington.

After that, the class was introduced to Mike Zahs who a few classmates had in Junior High as their history teacher. Zahs talked about the Blair House and finished up with a tour of the top of the building. Then, the class traveled to the Elm Grove Cemetery where they did a walking tour as Zahs pointed out gravestone markers with significant details and famous people that are buried and what they had done for the town.

Next up was lunch, where Police Chief Jim Lester grilled for the group and they enjoyed a beautiful September day in the park shelter by the rocket slide. Zahs gave history on the log house that sits at Sunset Park before group members traveled back to the square to visit the famous fountain in Central Park, and a nice walk to State Theater to enjoy the history of our oldest theater in the world, located right here in Washington. The class enjoyed a complimentary bag of popcorn and a behind-the-scenes tour of the Theater.

Next up was a tour of the F-Troop Building. Only a couple of classmates had been to the building to see the past war military artifacts before. The day finished at the Conger House, where leaders had many positive comments from classmates about the day and really enjoyed starting the class.

This year’s class contains just under 30 business people from around Washington County. If you are interested in joining, please contact the Chamber for more information.