Hood recently spoke twice to Post 526 in Medford about the Girls State Program.
BY LINDSEY NOLEN
Medford American Legion Post 526 has always supported the Boys State Program, and after the folding of the local Ladies Auxiliary, it now also supports the Girls State Program.
This year, after selecting Marlton resident Elle Hood as a delegate and inviting her to speak to the organization at its November meeting, Post 526 invited the 18-year-old to speak again at its holiday party on Thursday, Dec. 22 at the Medford Village Country Club.
“My sponsoring post, 526, asked if I would be interested in talking about my experience at Girls State, and I could not have been more thrilled,” Hood said. “I think my enthusiasm for the program was very evident in my communications with [Post 526] and the other members.”
Making this opportunity possible for Hood, in his third year with the Boys State Program, Warren Herbst, commander of American Legion Post 526, thought it was unfair for girls to be denied the opportunity to attend a program due to his organization’s lack of an Auxiliary. Therefore, he decided to interview and send girls from local schools to the Girls State program at Georgian Court University.
After a panel interviewed delegates from a large and competitive student population, Hood was selected last February from among 30 to 40 girls from five local schools: Shawnee, Seneca, Lenape, Cherokee and BCIT-Medford. Post 526 was given only four delegate slots by the Girls State organization, and delegates were chosen at-large based on their leadership skills, school citizenship and ability to express themselves.
As a delegate, Hood was invited to attend the 2016 Girls State Convention, a week-long program that simulated the selecting and electing statewide, county and local officials, with the final portion being the enactment of legislation. At the event, Hood, a senior at Cherokee High School, was elected lieutenant governor.
“Every second of every day was filled with some activity, whether it was a meeting, an election or even choir rehearsal,” Hood said. “We were broken up into cities, and each city was presented with a problem. After electing our local government just minutes after getting acquainted with the other girls, we got to work to create a plan and solution to our problem.”
At the convention, there were also guest speakers, allowing delegates to learn about careers in the military directly from women who pursued them. The delegates were also given the opportunity to serve lunch to veterans and even trained with a Marine.
“Each year, one or more of our delegates are invited to speak at a fall [Medford American Legion Post 526] meeting to discuss their experiences at the programs they attended. [Hood], having achieved the highest station of our delegates last year, was asked to share her experiences,” Herbst said. “I think the thing that impressed our members most was the patriotic enthusiasm she expressed toward her country and the joy she seemed to have describing her experiences at the program.”
Herbst added Post 526 wanted to have Hood speak at the upcoming dinner so the wives of its members could also hear Hood’s account of her experiences in the hopes that the Post Auxiliary might be re-established in the near future.
“There are no other programs like [the Boys and Girls State Programs], and I think it’s so important to encourage young people to learn about their government,” Hood said. “The people I have met through Girls State have made me a better person and citizen, and I think as many people as possible should be exposed to that kind of environment.”
For the opportunity to participate in the Boys or Girls State Programs next year, students will be given the opportunity to interview starting in about six weeks. Schools identify candidates, and then interviews at each of the schools will occur in late January and be completed by the end of February.
For more information and links about the Medford American Legion’s Post 526 programs, visit http://www.post526alnj.org/.
