Boys & Girls State Delegates Selected

Story by Meghan McWhorter

The Wartburg Central High School faculty voted to give two juniors the opportunity to attend Girls’ State and Boys’ State for one week this summer. Students selected must be high school juniors during the 2007-2008 academic year, have a high moral character, outstanding leadership qualities, academic excellence, interest in government, community participation, and willingness to participate in program activities.  Representing CHS this summer will be Katelyn Jones and Eugene Poole.

Katelyn is the daughter of Rick and Camellia Jones of Lancing. Eugene is the son of Joe and Bernadine Poole from Wartburg. Both are outstanding students and exemplify the moral, academic, and leadership qualities required of delegates by the American Legion organizations.  The CHS Renaissance Foundation annually underwrites the cost to send the CHS representatives.

Volunteer Girls State is sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary and offers leadership and citizenship training program to young women selected from high schools across the state of Tennessee. Girls State is held on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The 2008 program will begin May 25. Participants are called “citizens” and will spend the week creating their own city, county and state governments where they experience the electoral process first-hand, as voters, as candidates and in various other supporting roles. Tennessee’s Volunteer Girls State program is regularly recognized as one of the top Girls State programs in the nation.

Boys State is sponsored by the Tennessee American Legion, which is the number one Boys State program in the nation. It begins May 25, and lasts an entire week. The program is held at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tenn. American Legion Boys State, Inc. is planned so that young men may put into actual practice the theories of government through actual participation in city, county, and state governments organized as a “Mythical 51st State.” Through this program, participants realize the responsibilities of citizenship and the duties of American citizens while developing leadership skills.