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Pennsylvania Boys State: getting the word out
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It’s a funny story, Carl Will says, when asked about what first drew him to Keystone Boys State.
“I knew nothing about Boys State. … My guidance counselor calls me in at the end of the year, maybe four days before the end of the school year. I was a student leader in my school, class president … they said there’s this leadership development program, would you like to go? I said sure. Alright, we have another guy going, you guys can carpool,” Will recalled.
That happened about a week before the 2012 session of Pennsylvania’s American Legion Boys State program was to begin. When Will arrived at Shippensburg University, he wasn't on the list. "They had no idea who I was. They accommodated (me), it’s a good thing.”
Indeed. Will so loved the program he came back as a junior counselor the following year and made his way up to dean this year, where his duties include being a liaison between the program and the university, ensuring programming areas are ready to go and that the counseling and Legion volunteer staff are kept up to date.
“I love the program, I think it does a great thing for the students. I think that this program is definitely one of the best programs Pennsylvania has to offer students, both boys and girls,” Will said. “… I just think everybody should be aware of the opportunities they have here, the opportunities to really impact on their lives.”
It’s a familiar refrain across the 49 Boys State programs — let young men know what the program is about and they’ll come.
Therein lies the challenge.
“I just want to get more kids here,” Keystone Boys State Director Jacques Weedon said. His goal in 2016 was 250 kids; the program drew 236. He wanted 300 this year and 226 attended.
The challenge in Pennsylvania is getting into the schools to let young men know about the program. Fred Baker II, District 15 commander, said it’s a challenge to find the right person in the schools to get the information out.
Lincoln Davidson is Keystone Boys State’s associate dean for communications, responsible for external communications for the program, among other duties. A 2009 Boys State delegate who also represented Pennsylvania at Boys Nation, Davidson said he too knew nothing about the program when his guidance counselor first suggested it.
“It was very obvious right away that there was something really special going on here. The whole learning by doing aspect of the program is really unique in any leadership program I’ve ever participated in,” Davidson said. “There is no better program for teaching you how to go back to your community and give back, how to go back to your community and step up and take on the hard tasks no one else wants to solve, the intractable problems that kind of plague our politics right now, and plague communities across the country.
"There’s also no other program that builds that bond of brotherhood by throwing everyone in the deep end and forcing them to confront these problems and work together in confined spaces for a whole week. It really does build a community like you’ll find nowhere else.”