For the 2006 General Assembly legislative session, some 115 young men and women are working as pages. They run copies, stuff envelopes, deliver mail, fetch sodas, turn microphones on - do just about anything that's asked. Most are high school students, with almost a third coming from La Salle Academy. Six out of 10 are boys.

The earliest reference found in the State House Library to the page program is from 1870, when the General Assembly passed a resolution to pay the pages $2 a day for their services. Today they are paid $25 a day working from 4 to 7 p.m.

They come to the State House for a variety of reasons - from wanting a part-time job that won't interfere with school, weekends or holidays to aspiring to occupy the governor's office. But they all leave the State House with new friends, connections and a better understanding of how and why state governement works.