Catawba College to host 76th consecutive session of Tar Heel Girls State
Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 13, 2015
Catawba College will host the 76th annual Tar Heel Girls State June 14-20. This is the 14th year the college has hosted the weeklong session.
The annual event will bring several hundred girls from across the state to study the structure and operation of North Carolina state government. Each participant will be a high school junior in the top third of her class.
In a non-partisan atmosphere, participants take a hands-on approach to learning how state and local governments function. Citizens, as the participants are known, develop an understanding of the responsibilities of citizenship by creating and living under their own mock government.
During the week, citizens are grouped into cities as they organize their own local government, elect officers, prepare a city charter and conduct city activities. Citizens also assume the role of a senator, representative or lobbyist to research and write bills and resolutions for the Girls State Legislature.
Each citizen is also a member of a fictitious political party, which will develop a party platform, engineer campaigns for party candidates and ultimately elect a slate of officers to govern Tar Heel Girls State. Parliamentary procedure is used to conduct all meetings.
As in the past, Girls State will be run by Auxiliary members from across the state who volunteer their time. Two of these members, Chair of the Commission Kaye Brown Hirst of Salisbury and Program Director Julie Cooper of Valdese, will be participating for their 28th year with the program. Other local individuals involved on staff include Mary Jane Thompson, house mother; Tina Brown of Rockwell, music director; Rena Ogle, city counselor, and Karl Hales presenting a workshop.
“The citizens have a wonderful opportunity during the week to become involved and learn the rules of civic engagement,” Hirst said. “These young women will be our leaders soon, and they will gain valuable experiences in leadership that will help shape and guide them as they become community, state and national leaders in the following years.”
Hirst will retire as Chair of the Tar Heel Girls State Commission this summer following this session. She has served the North Carolina American Legion Auxiliary for 28 years, chairing the program for 26 years.
The Honorable District Court Judge Beth Dixon of Rowan County will swear in the girls as Girls State citizens Sunday evening. Judy Klusman will bring greetings from the Rowan County Commissioners, and Maggie Blackwell will speak on behalf of the City of Salisbury at the opening ceremony.
Guest speakers scheduled for the 2015 Tar Heel Girls State session include Karen Burns from Davidson County Family Services; Anita Massey from the National Guard; Janet Ward Black, an attorney and former Miss North Carolina; and Kacie England, 2014 Tar Heel Girls State Governor.
While the Girls State Program is held in every state in the nation, North Carolina is the only state in the country to held it for 76 consecutive years, according to Hirst.
The program is an Americanism project of the American Legion Auxiliary and an American Legion Auxiliary Unit approves all applications and nominates girls for the program.
Hirst said moving the program to Catawba College helped strengthened the nationally recognized program thanks in part to the strong support from the local community.
Local girls from Rowan County will be among the participants. From Rowan County, students are sponsored by American Legion Auxiliary Units in Salisbury, Faith, West Rowan and Landis.
Two delegates from Tar Heel Girls State will be selected to participate in Girls Nation. The names of these two individuals will be announced during closing ceremonies of Tar Heel Girls State.
