The U.S. presidential election is still three years away but one group is already campaigning for young votes.

Generation Engage is a non-partisan initiative aimed at getting youth involved in government and the community. They're hoping some big names will help sell their message.

Generation Engage is not only bringing out the civic duty in youth, it's also bringing together Democrats and Republicans.

Thursday, former Raleigh Mayor Tom Fetzer joined former Senator John Edwards to help get the message out.

"I think that they're looking for honesty and integrity and non-politicians politicians," Edwards said. "I think they're looking for people they can trust."

People between the ages of 18 and 24 continue to vote in lower numbers than any other age group in the U.S.

Generation Engage chose to focus on the state's community college students for a reason.

Chairperson Courtney Crowder said, "With the number of universities, four year institutions that we have, these types of events generally happen there, but for community colleges this is a bit of a novelty so we were excited about it."

Three community colleges from the Raleigh and Charlotte areas linked up via video conference to listen in and ask questions.

Students, like Megan Perry, said they want to make up for the low voter turnout in 2004.

"It's just disappointing that we couldn't make the difference that we wanted to make," she said.

Others are using the engagement to practice for their political future.

"Hopefully one day want to go into a career into public policy, working on a campaign or maybe eventually running for office one day," Jamaal Forney, also a student, explained.