HARRISBURG — Paige Lambermont walked right into the heart of democracy recently and was thoroughly taken in by the spectacle.

Lambermont, Butler High School senior and Butler YMCA Youth & Government president, was one of 47 Butler YMCA and Rose E. Schneider Family YMCA Youth & Government delegates who traveled to Harrisburg for the Model Government Convention.

When she walked into the general assembly, she was dazzled by the marble, the gold, the pictures and the stain glass. But she was more intrigued by the opportunity at hand.

“You look at it and you’re like, ‘I’m here, and I can speak here, and that’s an opportunity I can have at the high school level,’” she said. “I think that’s so impressive that you get to be sitting where these real representatives sit and you get to be speaking on the same things that they’re speaking on.”

Youth & Government is a student-led program with more than 600 participants in grades 7 to 12 around the state that acts as a mock state government. It’s complete with a governor, Senate, House of Representatives, a supreme court and media to cover the politics.

Adults act as advisers, but Butler adviser Garrett Kaiser stressed the students do most of the work. Much of that work involves attempting to get bills passed. It’s a hard feat to achieve. This year, only one Butler delegate, freshman Nathan Ellis, made it happen.

“I was really excited and kind of surprised actually,” he said of his bill’s passing.

Ellis created a bill which would allow disabled people to get help pumping gas into their vehicles by posting phone numbers of gas stations on the pumps so they could call the employees to come and help them.

It was based on a real-life Florida law.

“It really intrigued me and I wanted to do the same thing,” Ellis said.

Ellis, who was busy helping other people improve their bills, wasn’t even sure his bill would be debated by the Senate. It finally was in the last session.

“It took a lot of convincing,” Ellis said. “Some people were very confused on some parts of the bill. It was actually a struggle to get it through Senate.”

A 33-11 vote passed, and it was expedited to the House floor with 15 minutes left in the session. The Speaker of the House was contacted, and after a quick debate it was sent to the governor, who agreed to pass the bill.

All passed bills are sent to be reviewed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe, and Ellis would love to see it be a real law.

“Definitely I would promote it to state Legislature,” he said.

As exciting as Ellis’ experience was, you didn’t have to pass a bill to have a remarkable experience at the Capitol last weekend.

Lambermont was a Blue House Committee Chairman, making sure it was run effectively and helping pass bills onto the House.

She also took great pride in watching her fellow Butler delegates and students she led come into their own.

“Seeing all of the younger seventh and eighth graders, especially the delegates I took to the conference, come out of their shells and watching it click with them was really great,” she said. “Seeing kids my own age debate at such a high level, that was just amazing.”

“Coming out of their shells” is a concept with which Kaiser is familiar.

“Everybody speaks a lot, so I think it helps a lot of kids with their public speaking fears and helps them be more self confident,” he said.

He was one of those kids.

“It was a program that changed my life,” he said.

And while real-life politicians squabble over party lines, in Youth & Government parties don’t exist.

“I don’t think it’s as important as having one view or the other,” Lambermont said. “I think it’s how you defend that view, and I think that’s what youth and government really brings out.”