The American Legion Palmetto Boys State Program will be held again at Anderson University, in Anderson, SC for the period of June 5 -11, 2016. This will be the sixth year the program will be held at Anderson University; last year there was over 1,000 participants from across South Carolina who attended.
This year with the help of sponsors throughout Dillon and the Dillon County area, The American Legion will be able to send eight young men to Anderson University for a week of actively participating in the practical democratic principles of government.
One of the goals of the Program is to get the young men to become enthusiastic about our form of government and how it works so they will be able to share their experiences with their friends and classmates when they come back home. This experience might interest some of them in running for public office when they can and being more involved in their community.
The cost to send one young man to Boys State is $300.00. Then the young man has to pay $40.00 for a registration fee which includes two T-shirts and promotional material that they will use when running for mock government offices. They will also have to pay $40.00 for a room deposit fee; this will be returned to them when they turn in their room key at the end of the week.
The young men chosen for this program are selected by their teachers and school counselors, their grades and leadership ability are big factors in this selection. Then members from The American Legion, Post 0032 here in Dillon will interview the young men one at a time.
They are asked to give the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of The United States of America. They are then asked questions about the city, county, state and federal government. Some of these questions are rather difficult and some are fairly easy, but the young men who want to go to Boys State will study hard and do well on the interview.
The one wish the members of The American Legion has is that we would like to be able to send all of the young men we interview to Boys State, they are our future leaders and this would be a good start for them.
Delegates selected for this year are: Dillon Christian School – Matthew Fitzgibbon, Delegate; Bradley Patterson, Alternate; Dillon High School – Rh-Heem McCrimmon, Qwameek Bethea, Matthew Edwards, Jervarius Melton, Delegates; Jermaine McDaniel, Andrew Covington, Deiontae Thomas, Alternates; Latta High School – Walker Brumble, Anthony Ibrahim, Luis Delaluz, Delegates; Daniel Khalil, Marque Scott, Alternates.
