The summer between my junior and senior year in high school, the American Legion Auxillary chose me and one of my classmates to attend Girls' State. It was a week-long experience held on the Kansas University campus in Lawrence.
Small towns could send two girls and the larger places were able to send more - probably in relation to the size of the American Legion in the town or city. The big city girls were so much better prepared than those of us from small towns.
The purpose of Girls' State was to show girls how city, county, state and national governments worked including the politics of running for office. We studied the responsibilities of the various offices at all levels of government.
Late in the week we had elections for the offices from county sheriff to the state governor and everything in between. The candidates ran a campaign prior to the election. I ran for county sheriff and was elected.
We toured the state capitol, the governor's mansion, the state house and state senate in Topeka. It was all very interesting. This was all crammed into one day.
We also had a mock trial. I was the bailiff and had to say, "Oyez, Oyez, court is now in session. Please rise for the honorable Judge Jane Doe." The mock trial was very interesting because I had never been in a court room nor seen a trial.
At the end of the week, we were presented with pins in the shape of the state of Kansas with gold lettering across the top that said Sunflower; on the left it said Girls' and on the right it said State. The American Legion logo was in the center.
At the end of the week we chose two girls to represent Kansas at Girls' Nation which was held in Washington, D.C.
My classmate and I presented an oral report about our week at Girls' State to the American Legion Auxillary at one of the meetings later in the summer. All in all, it was a very good experience.
