The Veterans Sound Off Podcast
On each episode of the show we will travel across the State of Mississippi and visit each American Legion Post and discover how the members there are still serving America in their communities.
The Veterans Sound Off Podcast
ALA Magnolia Girls State Program: Preparing Young Women for Leadership
Ever wondered how young women are being prepared to lead the future? Join us on the Veterans Sound Off Podcast as we uncover the impact of the Magnolia Girls State Program, a pioneering leadership initiative for high school juniors. Featuring insightful discussions with Angela Kilcrease, Abby Burris, and Camille Bullock, this episode explores how the program empowers participants by fostering a deep understanding of state government and leadership skills. Angela, with her extensive experience, sheds light on the mission of the program, while Abby and Camille share their journeys from delegates to advocates, highlighting the diverse talents and potential of the young women involved.
Discover the technological transformation of the Magnolia Girls State application process, as the program embraces social media and online platforms to enhance participant engagement. We examine how young women are creatively utilizing Instagram and Facebook for their political campaigns, and how the shift to online registration has streamlined operations for a smoother experience. From modernized event documentation to new ways of sharing the journey with families, this episode unpacks the program's forward-thinking approach to nurturing future leaders.
Unveil the vibrant atmosphere of Magnolia Girls State, held at Ole Miss, where creativity and camaraderie flourish during mock elections and beyond. We delve into the logistics of registration and the vital role of sponsorships, emphasizing the importance of school counselors and auxiliary units in promoting diverse participation. Hear stories of resourcefulness and innovation as delegates craft campaign materials and forge lifelong connections. The episode celebrates the personal growth and empowerment that participants experience, underscoring the program's commitment to shaping confident, capable leaders ready to make their mark on the world.
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This is the Veterans Sound Off Podcast.
Jerry Allhands:I'm your host, jerry Allhands, a veteran of the US Air Force and Army and a Mississippi Pass Department Commander of the American Legion. You're invited to join me as we travel across the state of Mississippi, visiting the American Legion posts in each community. Together, we'll get to know the American Legion family, including the American Legion Auxiliary, the Sons of the American Legion and the Legion Riders. As we travel the state we'll visit with other groups and organizations that are serving America's veterans and their families. Last week, we returned to post-1990 in Nesbitt, where we sat down with members of the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 1990. And now join me as I sit down with the leadership of the 2025 Magnolia Girls State Program. "I love girls state. I love girls state. In the room with me today are three very, very special ladies who are here today to talk about. Do we call it Magnolia Girls State? Magnolia Girls State. It is a program of the American Legion Auxiliary and I have the distinct privilege to be talking with...
Angela Kilcrease:I am Angela Kilcrease. I'm a Past Department President 2009, 2010. I've held several national offices district president. I've done them all, so my greatest one is being girls state director so far. Um, I have wonderful team here. They're young, they're bright, they're in, they inspire all of us to keep going and they're going to be our future leaders of this program. So we have Abby Burris, who is now the assistant director. She was one of my delegates, um, when I was girl state director prior, before and now she has moved all the way up. She's worked with this program and now she's going to be our assistant director and our director, hopefully for next year, right yeah and then we have, uh, Camille Bullock.
Angela Kilcrease:She like she is an art major but but she is working our public relations, she's working our communications and she is getting us online and ready to go for the future us through social media and our websites and everything that you can imagine. So we're very proud to have them on this team working with us, bringing new blood in.
Jerry Allhands:Excited to have you.
Angela Kilcrease:Yes, you were past department president of what year 2009- 2010.
Jerry Allhands:And I heard you say national.
Angela Kilcrease:Yes, I was a national historian. I was Southern Division National Vice President. I was on several national committees, including public relations and strategic planning.
Abby Burris:Hi, I'm Abby Burris. I am, of course, this year's assistant director. I've been involved with Girls State ever since I was a delegate. I was a junior counselor and I was a senior counselor these past couple years. It's some of my greatest pleasures ever to come back to Girl State and I love coming back every year.
Camille Bullock:Hi, I'm Camille Bullock. I was a delegate just a couple years ago. I am a younger part of our team just really trying to focus in on the delegates. So I'm really in charge of communications, really social media-based, just really trying to get a one-on-one communication with those delegates.
Jerry Allhands:We're definitely going to come back and ask questions on that, but I want to start with Ms Angela.
Angela Kilcrease:I'll call you Ms Angela or Ms Gilcruz, how would you like it?
Jerry Allhands:Madam President, ms Angela would be fine. All right, let's talk about Magnolia Girls State. What is Magnolia Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease:Magnolia Girls State is a leadership program that we offer for young girls, juniors going into their senior year, just like Boys State. We use government, state government as our tool for the leadership development and they come in and they run for offices on the city level, the county level and the state level. We also do judicial as well, for to run for judges, but it's we use it our, that's our tool for the training and the leadership, but it's to empower the women and give them the confidence that they can do it and they and it works, even though it's kind of old-fashioned, but it works.
Jerry Allhands:And with the Magnolia Girls State. Is it a program of the American Legion or a program of the American Legion Auxiliary Girls?
Angela Kilcrease:State is solely auxiliary, solely auxiliary, and we have to tag it a lot of times. It is ALA, Magnolia Girl State, and that's how our national organization wants us to say it. But it's our program and we govern it. We have a board of directors for Girls State and it's made up of this committee and some of the officers, but it's solely Mississippi's program and each state has their own, of course, but this one is ours.
Jerry Allhands:And with Magnolia Girls State this year 2025, I'm assuming it's like Boys State Girls have to be a junior going into their senior year. Right, tell me what you're looking for in young ladies to go to Girls State.
Angela Kilcrease:Well, we're looking for a myriad of young ladies. We want some that are gung-ho, they're energetic and they're a natural leader and they can come and develop their skills, and many of the ones that run for top eight office that's where they come in. They're running for the top stations and the offices. But you also have young ladies that come that never have been involved in something like this. They've never been exposed to a leadership program using our form of government processes to do this, and so they walk in and they have no idea, and then they may be in a rural school. They don't have exposure to things like this. They don't have exposure to the speakers that we bring to the table for them. We have top eight officials in the state. They come from Jackson, but we also bring motivational speakers, inspiring speakers, to help them grow as a human being and empower them as women to go forward in their lives.
Jerry Allhands:Earlier you had spoke about the different offices that they run for. Let's assume that the people who are listening to us today have no idea what we're talking about. What are the offices that they would be running for?
Angela Kilcrease:Okay, you've got your top eight offices. Okay, you have governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, treasurer, insurance commissioner, insurance agricultural commissioner, commissioner, insurance agricultural commissioner. We mimic the state government in Mississippi, from the state level to the county level to the city level, and we mimic that. We mimic the judicial setup in Mississippi, so it's just a mimic of our state government. And then we call ourselves we are the state of magnolia and why do we go with the state of magnolia?
Jerry Allhands:because, if this is, our we're magnolias. Mississippi's always magnolias the state flower being how the program mimics the state of mississippi and in our offices. You know, when you and I were in school yesterday, we had civics dude. I'm assuming that civics has fallen by the wayside, based on what I've seen in a lot of the public schools it seems not to be as popular these days I had to pass civics to graduate high school.
Jerry Allhands:I remember that so I would. Would a child excuse me? Would a student, a candidate for Mississippi Girls State, Magnolia Girls State? Would she benefit from having taken a civics course prior to coming to Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease:Not necessarily because we break into caucuses and in those caucuses they start learning what these are and we give out I have a whole packet to describe each office that we offer and we send that to them in advance and so they have an idea of what it entails. Now many of these offices are just figurehead offices but it's the process of getting elected to that office, being on a ballot, running for a position, campaigning, doing political speeches all of this is wrapped up in our party caucus system and that just gives them, especially the speeches. They seem to be very scared of the speeches but they get up there and it gives. They have to muster that confidence to get up there, speak, give their speech, hoping to influence the young voters out there in the audience to vote for them for a particular office.
Angela Kilcrease:Now, typically it's just when they vote for offices. Is they do the session wide vote or all of the delics just for the top eight, the top tier eight. The rest of them have done in caucus and it's not, as you know, stressful. But these girls they bring the ones that are running for top eight they come to to session and they have their campaign signs made. They may have a little thing where they'll pass out something for another delegate to remember them. Vote for me, and so it's it's. It's interesting to watch them do this and use their creativity and their take on what they're wanting to do, how they're going to proceed in what they're doing with this office and campaigning.
Jerry Allhands:So, coming out of a presidential election year like this year has been, do you sense that it's more exciting in a presidential year versus off years?
Abby Burris:I would say maybe it's a little bit more exciting because, like the girls already know what a campaign is in a presidential year and especially in the gubernatorial race in 2023, people knew, like we had Brandon Presley come and speak so we knew, like, what that campaign looked like. So I find in those years it's a little bit more exciting. But, especially coming out of maybe last year, we might have a little bit more know what a campaign is, especially with, like the Kamala Harris coming, what she was in the president in the Democratic Party and running for president. So I've noticed, like a lot of girls in past years, they look up to like females being in presidential leadership. So those campaigns could definitely help at girl state so you see a lot more excitement.
Abby Burris:It's somewhat especially in like the top eight positions not particularly like. Oh, I'm gonna run for mayor or supervisor. Yeah, it's really just like running for top eight and like, especially the girl that's with Girls Nation this year, some of work inspired by Kamala Harris and things like that. People in leadership. So I know this is totally tangent, but speakers this year I tried to get female leaders to come and speak to the girls, like I have state senators come and speak.
Abby Burris:Such as I had Nicole Boyd, Celeste Hurst, Kimberly Greenback. They all came and spoke on a panel and they're all state senators and representatives, so they were able to come and talk to the girls just one on one and ask them plenty of questions. We also had state leaders.
Jerry Allhands:Any federal Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Abby Burris:Cindy Hyde-Smith was unable to come because it's during the week of session.
Jerry Allhands:Yeah.
Abby Burris:I do know her office reached out and offered Lynn Fitch also came. Lynn Fitch is a great supporter of our program.
Jerry Allhands:She's wonderful.
Abby Burris:I enjoy her coming. She really speaks to the girls on a level that they enjoy and she's a great female leader to look up to. In our state we also had state representatives come. We had Speaker Jason White come. We also had a lady come and talk about mental health that's unrelated to politics but very related and she. It was 9 o'clock in the morning. It was one of the best speeches I heard all week about how to focus on your mental health. I mean, you're going into college. It's a tough time, so it's a wide myriad of speakers.
Camille Bullock:But you do see trends of kind of how politicians run their campaigns and what these speakers come and speak on. You see that pop up later throughout the week. Like I've seen politicians go more on like social media. So the girls really took that and ran with it. This year this is the first time we've had social media campaigns. It's normally just campaigning throughout the campus but they really took it online and like we really really did that, did a lot with that on our social media and it pushed out to a lot more people. But you and with the speeches later in the week, like you see elements of like maybe Michael Watson said just a little blurb and the governor is like campaigning for her final speech and she says like she quotes him, like Michael Watson said earlier in the week. You see so much of that. So like they really are listening and taking in these things that they're seeing like in the world and the people that we bring in. They're really taking so much from that so you're talking about social media the.
Jerry Allhands:Facebook Instagram, that facebook instagram, that sort of a thing. How is? How does that controlled in magnolia girl state? Is it? Is it you're actually setting up a facebook account on the public facebook or does it go through your website? How does that work?
Camille Bullock:um, so the past couple years I've really just done content all by myself. So I would I was the event photographer and then I would immediately push that out to the Facebook and the Instagram. We've recently gotten a website we're really trying to modernize that so where the parents can have like access to all the pictures and stuff. But it really just has been me like pushing out these kind of random pieces of content all throughout the week. But I'm really just trying to capture. Capture like the girls having fun and just trying to show the parents that they're having fun.
Jerry Allhands:Okay. So with the young ladies who are running for office, I'm doing air quotes here. Why am I doing quotes with no cameras? I'm doing air quotes, uh, and they're. They're doing Facebook and Instagram and that sort of thing. Is that an actual Facebook account? Instagram? Oh, it's on their own personal account.
Camille Bullock:So a lot of girls they um, some of them did it on their regular instagram, but some made like a separate account, so it'd be like vote, vote for camille, for governor, and they would have like all of their campaign stuff on that one account and so, um, they would like tag uh girls stay in the bio. We had a hashtag but, yes, they made specific campaign accounts and they were. A lot of.
Jerry Allhands:Them were really silly and fun it's things I don't even know how to do yeah so is. Are these again you? You were talking about accounts. Are these accounts they can delete afterwards, or it's just something that's going to be out there?
Camille Bullock:they can delete them at their own will usually, but instagram it's really easy. We didn't. They didn't really. Facebook isn't so popular with the younger generations, but it was really popular on Instagram.
Jerry Allhands:All right. So, talking about the website earlier, is there a web address that we can go to now?
Camille Bullock:There is, it is alamagnoliagirlstatecom.
Jerry Allhands:Okay, alamagnoliacom.
Camille Bullock:Girlstate, girlstatecom.
Angela Kilcrease:It's long.
Jerry Allhands:It is long, yeah, okay, not worthy, got to pull in close Okay.
Camille Bullock:There's a lot of states out there.
Jerry Allhands:It is Okay. A-l-a MagnoliaGirlstatecom.
Camille Bullock:Yes, sir.
Jerry Allhands:All right, so we're in the beginning process here. This is, let's say, January, February 2025. Girls State starts when.
Camille Bullock:June 8th. June 8th.
Angela Kilcrease:Through the 13th.
Abby Burris:Through the 13th at the University of Mississippi, ole.
Camille Bullock:Miss Hotty toddy.
Abby Burris:Hotty toddy.
Jerry Allhands:And for how do we go about applying for Magnolia Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease:Well, this year we're doing an online registration. Abby has worked on setting up the forms and we're doing jot forms and things like that. She keeps throwing these terms at me and I'm learning, but she has created an online form so they go in, where they're given the information we gave it to the units today through scanning barcodes of how to get to it. They go in, they fill it out and they send it in and that way it's their typing. It was very hard to read their handwriting a lot of times when we had paper, and now they type it in, we can read it and then it'll automatically, when they're accepted, it goes into an Excel spreadsheet, which we spent many, many hours trying to hand-type this stuff into an Excel spreadsheet. So she is modernizing us and she's cutting down on the workforce so we can do something else for Girls' Tape.
Jerry Allhands:Okay.
Angela Kilcrease:So it's a it's. It's a magical little thing I love it.
Abby Burris:So if you were a delegate and you wanted to register today, you were listening to this and you were like, hey, I want to go register for girls state so inspired, go to our website. There's a big button up at the top that says register. Pretty sure that's what it's delegate registration delegate registration.
Abby Burris:I'll go there and it tells you step by step of how to do it. There's a packet on there with the unit sponsorship form. So if you want to get sponsored by a unit, there's a form on there to take to your counselor that has your principal, that you need to get signed off on. So it's your weighted gpa, unweighted GPA, act score. All of that would be needed. There's also an essay question on there. I think that's about it. I mean it's a pretty in-depth application. It asks you if you're a descendant of a veteran or if a family member is in the Legion family organization. So it's a long application. I did it this morning just as a sample. It probably took me 10 minutes, but again I did not answer the essay question. But during the application process if a girl just goes, I can't handle this anymore there's a save button at the bottom sends it to your email and so after you click that save button and go back, there it is you can pick up from where you left off.
Jerry Allhands:You can pick up from there. Don't have to do it all at one time. Don't have to do it all at one time. Take a break, go get a soda.
Abby Burris:Take a break.
Jerry Allhands:Beautiful the qualifications. Again you were saying good moral character, good grades.
Angela Kilcrease:Well, yeah, and I think when we do the application because we ask them you know, what are your hobbies, what do you like doing, what have you accomplished in school? We ask them these kind of things and that gets an idea of who this girl is. But this information goes back to their sponsoring unit and the unit this is their job to call through and accept these girls. So it's very important that they get all the information they can about them and then they may ask these girls to come in and visit the unit. They speak to them. It's always been. A big part of it is to bringing their sponsored girls into the unit, into the post home and presenting them to everyone. So it gives them a little importance. But it also tells the girls this is who your sponsor is, this is who's supporting you, this is who's putting this program on. A lot of them don't know about the Legion, but anyway, a lot of the information on the application is for the units to get to learn these girls before they shell out the $275 to pay for it.
Jerry Allhands:Answering my questions before I'm asking them. I like it. You said sponsoring unit. What does that mean? What does that entail?
Angela Kilcrease:All the units in the auxiliary in the state of Mississippi and every state does this. But it's a grassroots thing because each unit is asked to participate in the Girls State program. So they have directors and they have assistant directors and a board and a committee. But it's actually for a long time it was. It's kind of getting away from it a little bit, but the units make the decisions. They say these are the girls we want to sponsor, these are the ones we're going to pay for, these are the ones that go through.
Angela Kilcrease:Now, honestly, I've never seen anybody get turned down to go to Girls' State. Everybody gets a shot as long as they can find the sponsorship money. But the sponsorship money doesn't have to come from the unit. They can go out and get corporate sponsors, they can go and get civic sponsors, parents can pay for their registration, so but the units, that's theirs, they they're sending it to the department and saying this is who we're sending and they get credit for that, for that many girls that they're sending, and that works their program from the local end, which is where we need it. Our units are tasked with going to the schools. They're our first foot into the schools to find these girls. They go to the counselors, they give them the form and they say we're starting up, we're ready to go, we're ready for you to give us some recommendations, and a lot of the recommendations for girls comes from the counselor at the schools. So that's why it's important for our units to become friends of the schools in their area, right?
Jerry Allhands:And you said it was $275? $275. And how long are they at Nino-Ur-Girl State?
Angela Kilcrease:It starts on Sunday afternoon and it runs until Friday around noon. Okay, it's on Sunday afternoon and it runs until Friday around noon. So it's a long. It's a longer conference than our workshop leadership program, whatever that you want to call it, than anything else I've seen and I was in continuing education for a long time in my career. We did these kind of things. We're there a whole week and that's kind of unusual for a youth program, but we get a lot done how many students do you anticipate having?
Angela Kilcrease:last year they had 170 something students. Our goal this year is 200. Of course I would love to get higher than that, but 300 is about a good number for us, for Mississippi, because of the staffing and all that.
Jerry Allhands:But we're shooting for 200 this year, and I'm going to playfully say this you could put 200 girls together in the same room and everything be Cobas City.
Angela Kilcrease:It's lovely.
Abby Burris:It's lovely. Well, you're adding staff, so you're talking 250.
Angela Kilcrease:Wow, yeah, that's better than you couldn't do that, but Jerry if you brought your equipment to our general session and you come to the political rally, your equipment would just be ringing off the hook. Wow.
Abby Burris:Girl State could break your equipment. Yes, it would.
Angela Kilcrease:But they're so enthusiastic and they're getting into this campaign process and the Federalists are going against the Nationalists and it's just a va-va-va-va-va and it's a whole evening of this enthusiasm that is unequal anything else we do.
Jerry Allhands:Okay, so now you bring this up Federalists and Nationalists. What is Federalists?
Angela Kilcrease:Those are the two parties Republicans, Democrats and the state of Magnolia has Federalists and Nationalists. It's just a name, Just a name just a name Just a name.
Jerry Allhands:It's all in the name. Yeah, do you assign them Federalists and Nationalists, or do they get to choose?
Angela Kilcrease:No, we assign them their party and when we register them in we assign them to a city, now a city which we name our cities after past department presidents still living. Their city has maybe 15 to 20 girls, sometimes a little more, and they have a senior counselor, two junior counselors, that's their guardian for the week, their moms, and they work as a city and then they go to caucuses and work on the state, county and judicial level, but the city always remains the same on their floor of the dormitory. Each floor of the dormitory is a city.
Jerry Allhands:How many cities are we talking about?
Angela Kilcrease:I think we're shooting between eight and ten. Eight, yeah, okay.
Jerry Allhands:And you said we're back at Ole Miss again this year.
Abby Burris:Yes, yes.
Jerry Allhands:Now, I was there with you last year.
Abby Burris:No, no, you were there with me. I was there with you. Yes, and Camille.
Jerry Allhands:And it was wonderful.
Angela Kilcrease:Yes.
Jerry Allhands:Beautiful place, Beautiful place. I was there for Boys State and then Girls State. This is the second year of Girls City. Last year wasn't it.
Abby Burris:This is the third year in 2025. I enjoy Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands:I graduated from there, so it's great going back Great campus and they treat us so well there.
Abby Burris:It's an awesome campus. I'm very thankful for them. They treat us so well. Having the Grove there and being able to do events for the Grove is awesome. Doing things outside on the most beautiful campus in the nation I think it actually got that just recently has the union. That was built about like in 2020. So the campus is nice. We stay in a great residence hall there Very nice has a bathroom for every bedroom, so nobody has to share a bathroom with like multiple people in the hall. So that's always great, especially when you're getting up at seven o'clock in the morning and you don't want to share a bathroom with everybody.
Jerry Allhands:I can imagine that, yeah, security is great there as well.
Abby Burris:Security is awesome. There's really nothing I can complain about at Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands:Well, it's Ole Miss.
Abby Burris:Well, there's very few things. I'm not saying that as a Mississippi State student, I do go to Mississippi State now.
Jerry Allhands:So how do you play off that being from Ole Miss and then going to Mississippi State? I mean, really, bobby Cook's got to be all over you.
Abby Burris:Well, I have an undergraduate degree in engineering, so I'm getting a master's degree in industrial and systems engineering, and Ole Miss does not offer that.
Jerry Allhands:That's a lot of educational degrees and things there. Yeah, man, a student coming to Girl State, magnolia. Yeah, can I call it Girl State or should I call it Magnolia Girl State?
Angela Kilcrease:Magnolia Girl. State Magnolia Girl.
Jerry Allhands:State A student comes there and see how I did that. Girls State what can they expect to receive at the end of it? Is there any kind of scholarship, any kind of?
Abby Burris:There's so many things you can expect.
Abby Burris:Such as you have lifelong connections. First off, I realize that's not monetary, that's not anything physical, but there are still people from Girl State from way back when that I keep up with all the time, and you just create a bond with these people all through the week they can expect to receive hands-on learning. There's no other program in the state that you can receive hands-on learning of the government process. I mean you're actively voting, you're actively voting for your governor, things like that. Uh, I mean there's so many. You can get involved with our glee club and ala jesta. So ala jesta is our yearbook, so at the end of the week we will have a yearbook that they can take home with them that tells them everything that went on, and so we have a staff of delegates that put that on. Uh, we also have a glee club that sings the national anthem and they do a great, they do an awesome job.
Abby Burris:There's also is scholarship opportunities, always for, like, the top eight, which is your governor on down, uh. And then there's scholarship opportunities at the major universities in the state of Mississippi. So USM offers a scholarship, ole Miss, of course, and Mississippi State all offers scholarships to the completed girls, state delegates. So at the end of the week they take that certificate, they can send it off to their university wherever they choose to go and they get a scholarship their freshman year. It does not apply to transfer students, so just first-year freshmen.
Jerry Allhands:All right, and this information is that listed on the website where they apply it is listed on the website.
Abby Burris:It's also listed on all the financial aid websites of their university.
Jerry Allhands:See, I get a little greedy about this because my granddaughter's in this stage group this year let's definitely sign her up, Boy.
Abby Burris:I'm trying Sign her up today I am so trying.
Jerry Allhands:She's in Arkansas. How would that work? You know she lives in Arkansas.
Abby Burris:She can come here.
Angela Kilcrease:Can she come here?
Abby Burris:We can make an exception.
Angela Kilcrease:Yes, especially since you're a Legion member here.
Jerry Allhands:Okay, that's nice to know.
Angela Kilcrease:Yes.
Jerry Allhands:Are the Legionnaires out there?
Angela Kilcrease:We have had a lot of girls come across the state lines because their grandparents or parents are members here, legion or Auxiliary in Mississippi. So they come here. They get sponsored here. We sponsored one out of my unit years ago that was out of state, she lived in Louisiana but her grandparents were members of our post.
Jerry Allhands:She's looking hard at Mississippi State. She wants to be a veterinarian.
Abby Burris:Perfect for that. Very good, me and Camille could definitely take her on a tour.
Jerry Allhands:Oh, there you go, host, she's looking hard at mississippi state she wants to be a veterinarian, so perfect, very good, me and camille could definitely take her on a tour, oh there you go but you know, one of we talk about those things.
Angela Kilcrease:One of the greatest things that they get out of this, and what's just for auxiliary members and us trying to put this program on for these young ladies, is what they take away inside. They come in and you can. I've had so many mothers and the girls themselves would say she's changed when she left there. She has changed, she's come out of her shell. She knows that she's accomplished something. She knows that she's accomplished something. We've given her something to be proud of in herself. We empower her and there's a lot of girls that come that are not overly exuberant or confident. They're all kinds and when you can get one and take them by the hand and show them, yes, do this. And then all this and you watch them blossom and bloom all week long and it's an incredible feeling and, like you have a mother call, she says what did you do with my daughter? This is not the same girl that we had sent to you. That's worth it, everything that we do for this program, when, when, a girl goes to Magnolia girls day.
Jerry Allhands:Uh, address books. Do we still do address books guys?
Abby Burris:What is it?
Angela Kilcrease:That's our allergist and they it's. It's their little year book and they get that. Last night, on Thursday night, they get their allergist is and they get to pass it around and let people sign. They're bonding and especially in their cities, the city. They were there together all week doing different projects together. They bonded. But if they've been running for top eight or something else, those girls bond too. So it's a lot of bonding.
Jerry Allhands:My wife is an alumni of girls state. I'm not sure it was magnolia girls state back oh, it's always been magnolia yeah, we're not going to say how many decades ago that was, because my couch isn't that big. My son is a graduate of boy state. Had plans for my grandson to go to boy state, but baseball camp was the same week, so know how that works. So there you go. So hopefully you'll be seeing my granddaughter this summer.
Abby Burris:We compete with dance camps, so don't let dance camp.
Camille Bullock:Get in the way of girls' day.
Jerry Allhands:That's a good point. That is a good point because there's so much going on. This is like the week after Memorial Day, right?
Abby Burris:Because Boys State is Memorial Day week, y'all are the week immediately after it skips a week.
Jerry Allhands:So what are the things that could potentially get in the way of a young lady getting to go to Girls State?
Abby Burris:Her schedule.
Angela Kilcrease:All the sports camp, we competed against a lot of activities to come to Girls State. It's always been that way. Because the summer hits, the kids are going in different directions. Yes, so we tried to do ours earlier in the summer because of certain things that came further along down the line and it seems to have been a niche for us that we've created and so we've not had too much. But you're always going to have competition Always.
Abby Burris:It could also be particularly hard because I know schools on the coast have moved to like year-round schools and so like they only have so many weeks that are off and so mom and daddy could go hey, get in the car, we're going to the beach while you're off, not, hey, you're going to Girl State. So there's a lot of competition there also and I know like there's other leadership camps Last year people couldn't come to Girl State because it ended on Saturday and there's a leadership camp that goes to DC that I was involved in way back when and some girls were not able to come to Girl State because they were leaving to go to DC on that leadership camp.
Angela Kilcrease:And see, we had run in that before where you know. That's why we did not end on Saturday. It's because they were having to go to the next one.
Abby Burris:Yeah.
Angela Kilcrease:I mean some of these girls. They're booked every week during the summer.
Jerry Allhands:Yeah, I'm running into that already.
Angela Kilcrease:Yeah, and so they're run ragged because we've had girls packed. When they leave Girls State, they have their luggage to go to the next one and they're going directly to an airport, or they're going directly to the next event.
Abby Burris:I know when I went to Girls State back when. So I left Girls State on Friday, I packed my bag to go to DC and then I left that morning at 5 o'clock and went to DC. Wow to go to DC. And then I left that morning at five o'clock and went to DC Wow. So the week, the that between your junior and senior year is a busy time because there's so many leadership camps that want to prepare you for college out there and you could also like want to go tour a school. Say, I want to go tour USM during the summer. There's also that time while I'm not in school, especially with like these AP and dual credit courses. They don't allow you time off from school to go visit schools, so you compete for that, wow yeah.
Jerry Allhands:So, as we're getting close to wrapping this interview up, tell me the steps. What should a parent and a delegate potentially delegate be starting from right now? Today and we just talked about a schedule we're three months, four or five months out. You know where do we start. What do we do.
Angela Kilcrease:We start by going on and get the application. That's the first thing.
Abby Burris:I think they need to go to the website and just look around and see what facts we have on there first and see if they would be even interested in the application process.
Angela Kilcrease:If we fit in their schedule.
Abby Burris:If we fit in their schedule, of course, that's a big thing.
Angela Kilcrease:And then they fill out the application, then they go find a sponsoring unit which we're going to provide them this information of who is near them that they could go and ask to sponsor we're going to do that of who is near them that they could go and ask to sponsor.
Angela Kilcrease:We're going to do that. Or they can go and find their own sponsorship through a civic organization in their town or their church or bottom line their parents could pay it if they wanted to do that. But they still need to have some kind of a unit to sign off on their application, that they've seen the applications. But that just keeps the unit involved in this program and working it. That's important.
Jerry Allhands:Website applications. Sponsoring unit. How much? $275. $275 to go. I'm sending my granddaughter to go. How much should I give her to have for spending money?
Angela Kilcrease:You don't need very much.
Abby Burris:They don't really have time $50 to $100, maybe Because we plan on having like merchandise. Actually Camille is working on this for us right now. We're going to have merchandise like sweatshirts, tote bags, cups, things like that for them to buy at Girls State, and they could also maybe want to buy a couple snacks, like out of the vending machine. But again we'll have socials.
Angela Kilcrease:But they can bring their own snacks to the room.
Abby Burris:They can bring their own snacks and I promise you, like the 15 girls that are going to run for governor, they're all going to bring snacks and they're all going to be your new best friend, because, again, at the end of the day, because again at the end of the day, there can only be two governor's candidates and they're going to have like a million snacks because they did not get governor. Because, again, 15 down to two, you're bound to have one on your floor.
Jerry Allhands:They're all going to bring you their snacks from their losing campaign or whatever. Okay Now, campaigns just like running for political office. You've got to have the money to run for office Somebody's at home and they're thinking they're going to run for governor. Should they start raising funds money to actually run for governor?
Abby Burris:No, it shouldn't cost you that much. Maybe it costs you $50.
Angela Kilcrease:One of our stipulations is you have to make your own campaign materials. We don't want, because it equals out the playing ground. We don't want somebody to go to Kinko's and print up all this fancy stuff. But you have other girls who can't do that, so they have to create their own campaign signs and their own campaign ideas.
Jerry Allhands:So these are things they do while they're on campus, or do they bring it from?
Abby Burris:home.
Angela Kilcrease:They bring it with them. They can do it before I know a girl and that's the best way to do it, to be prepared, and that's what we tell them in their orientations that we give them prior to coming to Girl State.
Jerry Allhands:So a month before you come to Girl State, you've already made up your mind I'm going to run for governor.
Abby Burris:No I mean they can decide the day of I want to run for governor.
Angela Kilcrease:I know a girl that-, but they won't be prepared like other girls will. No, yeah.
Abby Burris:I know a girl last year that ran for governor. She made friendship bracelets and gave them out to campaign. But of course, like she didn't get that far, so she just gave them out to everybody and it said like A-L-A-M-G-S on it.
Jerry Allhands:It was really cool.
Camille Bullock:doesn't fit, but I have it yeah, she gave it like to everybody yeah they do get really creative and really crafty, though like you can't even imagine some of the things the girls come up with. Like I have probably six of those little honey sticks sitting in my on a pencil cup in my office and I thought it was the most creative thing. I don't know if that girl won, but it was so cute and creative. So if you're thinking about campaigning, really, really, think about it. There's lots of accounts that I've been tagged in. Girls were thinking about campaigning for governor almost like half a month before I started getting tagged in lots and lots of accounts and it's just not the governor.
Angela Kilcrease:I have seen girls come. They're running for commissioner of agriculture and she came dressed as a cow. She wore a cow outfit all week long and they and all week long well with her t-shirt, with her t-shirt and then we had to be able to see it though please don't.
Angela Kilcrease:You have to wear your t-shirt but she, but they farmers have come through. We've had them in wagons, um. We have one lady. I remember her governor. She was from laurel and she um had a hannah banana because her last name was, her name was hannah, so she called herself hannah banana and she had this big hat, a fruit banana with mostly bananas and she ran on that. It was the cutest thing she won that year. It was so creative. Every year we were amazed of what they can come with and present to their. Creativity is really remarkable.
Jerry Allhands:I just flashed back on Chiquita Banana. I'm sorry. It's going to be in my head for the rest of the night.
Angela Kilcrease:I'll never forget Hannah Banana. I'm sorry, it's going to be in my head for the rest of the night. I know I'll never forget Hannah Banana and if she ever hears this podcast I hope she'll ring out. But they come and it's amazing, and some of them make these huge banners. We couldn't even put them up, but you know we don't really limit them or tell them what to do. It's just using their own creativity for this and what the university allow us to do.
Abby Burris:I think we did have to limit on how big the banners could be last year because, like Ole Miss, like can't handle like big banners all over the place. So definitely like there might be some stipulations on that, but like not right now.
Camille Bullock:Yeah, there might be some stipulations on that, but not right now. Yeah, within fire safety precautions, yeah definitely don't like.
Abby Burris:we had a problem with tying things up to exit signs, so we definitely can't do that.
Angela Kilcrease:We definitely can't do fire hazards In Southern Miss they didn't like tape on the glass and they would also put tape. I always told them, blue painter's tape, blue for the plow, for the plaster on the wall, on the big columns and all that. They take the paint off.
Abby Burris:But we've had that something that's so much cheaper than posters is get like stickers or like buttons that everybody can wear, because everybody loves wearing stickers and buttons. Or like make your own with like safety pins and little Post-it notes. One of my favorite girls from last year it was literally a safety pin hot glued with some like poster stickers with her name on it. And see, that's creative. Sure, yeah, that's creative.
Angela Kilcrease:But the girls also get other benefits to prepare them for college and helping them decide their senior year is very important. To prepare them for college and helping them decide their senior year is very important. So we have a college day where all the universities and community colleges, a lot of ROTC they come and they do a show for them and the ladies get to go in and go to each booth and hear what they've got, pick up materials for schools and that's been a very successful program that we have in here forever, ever, ever and do you already have a day planned out, that's on wednesday, on?
Angela Kilcrease:wednesday it's on wednesday afternoon of girls state it was thursday thursday is breakout sessions oh yeah, that's right that's, and on thursday, breakout session is, you know, all the mayors get in the room and all the supervisors get in the room the county officials and we actually bring in local cities around us.
Angela Kilcrease:We bring in their officials to come speak to the girls and say this is my job. This is what I do as an alderman. This is what I do as a supervisor. This is what I do as a tax collector. You know, we bring them all in and we have those breakout sessions according to what they were elected to.
Jerry Allhands:Do you still plan on having for the boys' day? It's called Legion Day, family Day.
Angela Kilcrease:We had that on Thursday night Legion, night Legion and auxiliary night yes, Now I know the food is really good there, Really good. What did you eat in the cafeteria or no?
Jerry Allhands:Both the cafeteria was great Okay.
Angela Kilcrease:Because you're going to be in the cafeteria this year.
Jerry Allhands:Raspberry ice cream last year. Bobby Cook, who was our department chaplain at the time. Who's now our alternate NEC? Let's just say that he and I arm-wrestled over the last little bit of raspberry ice cream, and that little scandal won you can mess with a chaplain.
Abby Burris:They had some hottie-tottie red ice cream and blue ice cream last year and every girl's face after dinner was like red and blue from the hottie-tottie red and blue ice cream.
Jerry Allhands:Oh, I like that, so we're calling it Legion, it's called Legion Night.
Abby Burris:Legion Night Auxiliary and Legion Night, don't we include both?
Angela Kilcrease:of them. Well, we do, but it's always been named Legion Night, but we bring our officers from the Legion and the department officers from the Legion and the Auxiliary. We bring the past department presidents that the cities are named for who can still travel.
Abby Burris:We invite, we invite any auxiliary member or legion member to come and just see what Girl State's about well as a past department commander.
Jerry Allhands:It's an honor to be there. I've enjoyed it. I hope you'll let me come back again we enjoy having you we have a great time. Let me let me get ready to wrap up for you here, and and and ask if, if I may, points of contact. How can we reach you other than the website? Can we call? Do we just go through our auxiliary units or no, you can call us.
Angela Kilcrease:We have, or email us my, as the director I have. My email address is Angela Kilcrease A-N-G-E-L-A-K-I-L-C-R-E-A-S-E at bellsouth, b-e-l-s-o-u-t-h dot net. Now you can tell that I have one of the oldest emails of AT&T.
Jerry Allhands:Bell.
Angela Kilcrease:South, yes, bell South.
Abby Burris:Also Girl State has an email. It's also on the website. It's magnoliagirlstate at gmailcom. That comes to me and Camille and me and Camille are just kind of sifting through those as they come in. That's general questions that you might have, like when does applications come out, things like that. So definitely they come through there. All your forms come through there. Form questions can be directed to there so I can answer them for whomever.
Jerry Allhands:And everything is on the website up and ready to go Website's up and have at it.
Angela Kilcrease:And Camille's going to be tweaking it and making it better, better, every day that she gets a chance in between class.
Jerry Allhands:You did say tweaking and not twerking, right? No, she's tweaking, I was just recently educated that there is a difference between tweaking and twerking.
Abby Burris:Yeah, there's a difference. There's definitely a difference.
Jerry Allhands:She's turning bright red.
Angela Kilcrease:We don't want to do twerking we definitely don't.
Abby Burris:We definitely don't, it was one of those.
Jerry Allhands:Papa, do you realize what word you just used?
Angela Kilcrease:No, twerking is not a Girl State thing.
Abby Burris:I'm sorry we don't do that at Girl State, not even in the context.
Jerry Allhands:I was using it Right. It was so embarrassing, it was wonderful. Anything that you would like to share with us before we wrap up today.
Angela Kilcrease:Anything, send us your best and your brightest.
Abby Burris:We're looking for the state's future leaders. We're looking for people that can go on and be state senators teachers, lawyers, doctors, things like that.
Angela Kilcrease:that will affect anybody, basically, and we're still looking for our first president of Girls Nation. We are still looking for someone who's going to go on and be president of the United States. We had one of our junior members here this morning who sat in our session and I we said, is there a future president here? And this one girl popped up yes, she was president. Columbus, mississippi.
Abby Burris:She's from the Columbus Post and she popped up to me a pate, I think it's Teresa. Star. Her name was her name Star, because I was like that's catchy yeah, but she, I mean she popped right up.
Angela Kilcrease:She was going to be the next president, a female president for the united states. I said go get at it I said but come to girl state first girl states first, just a reminder it is not always a girl who's involved.
Camille Bullock:It's not always a girl with the gpa. I was never picked for the leadership programs and I'm sitting here today. I never thought I would be here. I didn't want to go to Girls State, but I love it now. So even if you think you'll hate it, try it out. But if you think you'll love it, definitely try it out.
Jerry Allhands:Thank you. Yeah, that was something that somebody brought up to me recently was they had no idea what Girls State was about, what to expect? Yeah, a long time ago.
Angela Kilcrease:We hear that all the time.
Jerry Allhands:You know, did not go prepared. How do we get the excuse me for using this? How do we get the wallflower, the quiet one in the corner, to get involved?
Abby Burris:I think that's where the school counselors of the units come in. They go and find these people.
Angela Kilcrease:Hey, I go to church with her and she looks like she would take advantage of going to Girl State and my biggest advice to them is, if they're accepted to Girl State and they're coming, is to attend one of these mandatory on face to face orientation sessions that we give. We go over everything and talk them through all the processes, what to to expect, what to bring and how it's going to be. And we do these across the state, in the district areas. We combine some, but those coming to those orientations is really important for you to be prepared to come to Girls State and be successful.
Jerry Allhands:So it's up to us to make sure that the auxiliary units are getting the words out about those orientation meetings, those videos that's going to be on, it's going to be on the website.
Angela Kilcrease:They will be instructed they will receive once they are accepted to girls state. They will get this information and the list of the dates and then where, the places and of when to come to orientation. Even if they can't come to the one, if there's a date conflict in their area they can pick another one in the state. We're going to do five to six of them across the state.
Abby Burris:We're hoping to also do a remote one so we can talk with them live about what's going on, and it's not a recorded something that I have to watch before I come, because there's so much dialect that you get by just talking with somebody one-on-one, more than just a recorded video.
Angela Kilcrease:They get to ask questions and the important part of that those on-site is their parents come with them. The parents get to hear it. They bring grandparents with them. I mean the ones that I've done in the past, most of the ones. They're packed houses. I have a packed house and they get to come to a Legion post. Many people have not been inside a Legion post. Now we're bringing these folks inside to see what we're about, who we are. They see the walls and that's another important aspect of these on-site orientations.
Abby Burris:Because I personally can say I knew nothing about the Legion, the Auxiliary, anything like that, before Girl State and look, I'm now a part of the Auxiliary. I was able to join the Auxiliary, so Girl State is a great way to be able to put that foot in the door, of know what the Legion, the Auxiliary is, things like that.
Jerry Allhands:This is great and to be a part.
Angela Kilcrease:Yeah, look what we got.
Jerry Allhands:Beautiful.
Angela Kilcrease:With these young ladies.
Jerry Allhands:Thank you all so much for being here with me today.
Angela Kilcrease:Thank you, Jerry, thank you, Jerry, thank you. "I love girls state.
Jerry Allhands:"I love girls state and that was our visit with the leadership of the 2025 Magnolia Girls State Program. Be sure to join us next Monday morning as we visit with another member of the American Legion family. A very special thank you to Jonathan Michael Fleming for his musical talents. You can find his CDs and videos on Spotify, amazon Music and YouTube. We hope you've enjoyed this episode and look forward to your feedback, and ask that you subscribe to and share the Veterans Sound Off podcast with your friends and family. If you have a comment, suggestion or question, or you would like to become a supporter of this podcast, please send an email to JDAllHands at Outlookcom that's J-D-A-L-L-H-A-N-D-S at Outlookcom, or by calling us at 662-902-6658, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. This has been a production of All Hands Media LLC, with offices in Renalar Mississippi. All rights reserved.
