What is Girls and Boys State?

Weedsport High School prides itself in educating many young people who will do many great things in their lifetimes. These students do many exciting and amazing things and some of the best students are chosen for a plethora of exciting opportunities. One of these is the American Legion hosted Boys State and Girls State. An event over the summer that around here selects students from all over New York and lets them create their own working government complete with courts, legislative meetings, law enforcement and recreational programs.

According to the American Legion website, the American Legion Boys State is among the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for U.S. high school students. A participatory program in which students become part of the operation of local, county and state government. Boys State was founded in 1935 to counter the socialism-inspired Young Pioneer Camps. The program was the idea of two Illinois Legionnaires, Hayes Kennedy and Harold Card, who organized the first Boys State at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. Girls state was created by the American Legion Auxiliary, it is a similar program created for young women.

At Boys State, participants learn the rights, privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens. The training is objective and centers on the structure of city, county and state governments. Boys state is run by members from the Marines, a branch of the U.S. military. In order to be eligible for Boys or Girls State, a student must have successfully completed their junior year of high school and who have at least one more semester remaining are considered.

Previous participants of a this competition are not allowed to attend a second session. Only those who illustrate leadership, character, scholarship, loyalty and service in their schools and community should be considered. Merit and ability are the basis for evaluation during the actual citizens selection process. Typically, Boys State applicants are interviewed by members of the local American Legion Post and a select few are chosen to attend.

I have recently spoken with Weedsport Senior, Michael Chirco, who had attended last years Boys State. He said that, as the name implies, Boys State is a program in which the attendees make a fictitious state in which the boys are broken into ten separate counties each of which consist of three cities.

People then campaign for positions at the city level. This often includes speeches and other such methods to help get votes from the other people in your city. The county positions are chosen from the city officials by another vote with a much larger pool of voters. The most highly sought positions, those of the state level, are chosen from the county electives, and are the results of the collective voting of everyone attending Boys State.

The activities at Boys State are lots of athletic drills and training during the day, and political events during the evenings. Chirco remarked on how the Marines did a good job in getting in your face and wearing you down. He says it’s all about discipline, and that they are just preparing you for the future.