OWASCO - A motor boat stuffed with middle school students zoomed across Owasco Lake Monday.

Gusts of wind whipped their hair while eyes danced around the nature before them. And as the boat rocked back and forth with each passing wave, the students took in the scene truly unique to Cayuga County, one they vowed to protect as part of the Blueprint II group.

An outgrowth of A Call to Action: A Blueprint for Our Region's Future, the Blueprint II group has more than 60 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who take a keen interest in the place they call home and want to identify ways they can improve it.

And that's exactly why they went on a community tour Monday.

From Emerson Park and downtown Auburn to the water filtration plant and solid waste facility, the group got an

in-depth look at what Cayuga County has to offer and gained insight on what it could be.

Paul Noga, 13, of Auburn, loves theater and would like to see more of it in downtown Auburn. He wants traveling Broadway productions to perform in a revamped Schine Theater. That's why he joined the Blueprint II group, he said, and should his ideas come to fruition, there is a good chance he will come back here after college.

“I'd like to see more businesses and a better economy here,” he said. “If that happens, I'll definitely move back here after college and raise a family.”

Over the last several months, participants were required to write essays about what it is they'd like to see in the region. Seven broad areas of interest were identified from those essays: recreation, entertainment, cultural offerings, Emerson Park, downtown, water quality and green technology, Blueprint II facilitator Susan Muldoon said. These will form the basis for project proposals devised by the students and presented later this year to the Stardust Foundation of Central New York for funding consideration. Hence the community tour.

“By helping them become aware of what we already have, they will have an easier time coming up with projects,” Muldoon said.

According to facilitator Jeff Alberici, students will gain ownership of projects, and if they have a stake in the community they are less likely to leave it when they get older.

“People are the greatest resource in a community,” he said. “We're helping these kids with their projects with the hope that in 10 years or in 15 years down the road, when they are thinking about if they should stay here or move on, they say, 'We helped create this community, let's stay here.' We're keeping our resources here.”

Dustin Culver, 14, of Auburn, doesn't just want a new playground in Emerson Park. He wants it to be a destination, a place people can have fun, a place they want to go to, a place that is cheaper on the wallet.

“It's fun to play on and I'd like to get it fixed so a lot more people would want to come here,” he said.

For Culver too, a new playground at the park would be one more reason to raise a family here.

“If I stay here, my children could still have fun,” he said. “They could go swimming or play on the playground.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net