American Legion Girls State-Helena, MT

A few days later in Helena, Girls State was held at Carroll College where I was asked to speak to the girls on June 4. A roomful of high school juniors (entering seniors) at first was a little daunting, especially when they had been sitting through presentations in the morning for several hours. One of the chaperones mentioned that I should try to be funny or something to get them re-energized. Hopefully I was funny anyway but I began by teaching them the Montana song and having them spell out the word by creating the letters with their bodies – something I’ve done with my school presentations all year. At least it got them up and moving. I talked about service and how it often gets lost in our generation because of a decline in integrity and good decision making skills, and our attitude of “it’s all about me.” Afterward I opened up the room for questions and the funniest one was, “How many pairs of shoes do you have.” To my surprise, my answer was disappointing to them…I didn’t have as many as they expected. I estimated at around 30-40…that’s a lot! And my dad will be the first to agree! I stayed to have lunch and sat with a table of very excited girls..they were funny.