Participants in the annual Buffalo Grove Civics Forum pose with village board members. Trustees, from left, Gregory Pike, Eric Smith, Joanne Johnson, Village President Beverly Sussman, David Weidenfeld, Andrew Stein and Lester Ottenheimer III. Students, left to right, Kate Wojcik, Maya Belorusskiy, Jack Omansky, John Valentin, Vedant Rupwal, Rebecca Stone, Michelle Young, Caitlyn Liu, Arya Pore, Pranathi Boggavarapu, Stephany Chavez, Audrey Kim, Audrey Ro and Riya Nath. Courtesy of the Village of Buffalo Grove.

Each year, students from Buffalo Grove and Stevenson high schools get the rare opportunity to gain hands-on experience as elected officials during the Buffalo Grove Civics Forum.

The annual tradition is very much the pet project of longtime Village Clerk Janet Sirabian, whose mission is to teach the students citizenship and service in a unique way.

This year's forum on Sept. 12 included Buffalo Grove High students Stephany Chavez, John Valentin, Audrey Kim, Jack Omansky, Maya Belorusskiy, Kate Wojcik, Audrey Ro and Riya Nath; and Stevenson students Rebecca Stone, Michelle Young, Caitlyn Liu, Vedant Rupwal, Arya Pore and Pranathi Boggavarapu.

As part of the event, the students served as Buffalo Grove trustees and voted on a project for the village. This isn't just theory -- it's something the village actually will implement, within a modest budget.

At this year's forum, proposals included a new underwater communications unit for the fire department's divers to use during rescues; a sandblasting cabinet to clean metal parts for the public works department; an outdoor camera mounted to document the progress of The Clove mixed-use development; a water fountain and a smart TV to display information at police headquarters; and an onboarding welcome kit for new employees.

The trustees, under Village President Rebecca Stone, voted in favor of the water rescue equipment.

Kate Wojcik, who brought the idea before the trustees, said the MK-7 Buddy-Line serves an important purpose.

"Imagine you're one of the divers going underwater. Some of the waters that you enter, you can't even see your hand in front of your face," she said. "So when you're under there, you rely on a form of aboveground communication."

She said the fire department has two units, but they are more than 20 years old -- the life span of one is about 10 years.

"So already, that's older than I am," she said. "So we could really use an upgraded version that would have better communication."