Bell’s 1st page says goodbye

Bob Gibson / Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: March 8, 2008

RICHMOND - Fourteen-year-old Emma Shreve knows her way around Thomas Jefferson's Capitol and is sure she will miss the people she has met there the past 60 days.

Shreve, a freshman at Albemarle High School, is Del. Rob Bell's first page and was saying farewell to new friends Saturday on the 2008 General Assembly session's scheduled last day - even though legislators haven't finished their business and are headed into overtime.

Shreve is also living proof in a session sometimes marked by partisanship that relationships among people in political life do not have to be defined along Democratic or Republican lines.

Her father, David Shreve, was a Democratic candidate for Congress in Albemarle when Bell, a Republican, sought her appointment by House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford County, as a House page.

"She's interested in politics," said her mother, Leslie Shreve.

"I don't know where she gets that from," she joked, "and she did this on her own. She found her application and said, 'I've got to go talk to our delegate.'"

Bell said he was impressed with the A student and recommended her for the position. Her father later coincidentally dropped out of the running for the Democratic nomination to oppose 5th District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, on Nov. 4, ceding the nod to fellow Democrat Tom Perriello.

"Emma's been great," Bell said. "She's a diligent, serious and mature young lady who I'm sure will go on to do great things the rest of her life."

"She's the first page in seven years" he has managed to help into the job, Bell said. "I've made many applications and she's the first one to actually get through the application process and actually get selected."

"It was a very bipartisan appointment, obviously," Bell said with a laugh. "She made a real good impression on me and we turned in the application and advocated."

Shreve, interviewed during a break in the action on the floor of the House of Delegates, said she has enjoyed the two months running errands for delegates, buying them lunch and carrying papers to and from offices and desks.

She said she got the idea of becoming a page when she and her father visited Congress and watched pages who work there.

"It looked like they were having fun, and it looked like a great way to get involved in politics at a young age," she said. "It's been an amazing experience."

What she will remember most is "the people I've met," said the student whose favorite subject in school is history.

"Her teachers were really great about getting her her assignments every week," her mother said. "They had mandatory study hall every night from 7 to 9 p.m." three blocks away at their temporary home at the Omni Richmond Hotel.

"She maintained her A average," her mother said. "They had tutors. They worked from 8 to 5 and had two hours of study hall. She also kept in touch with classmates in her classes."

The younger Shreve is likely to pursue some sort of future in political life.

"She's interested in politics," he mom said. "She wants to work on campaigns. She's not sure she wants to be the one running."

House staffers describe her as quiet, smart, businesslike and likeable - a personal quality that tends to go a long way for those in politics.