This morning, most citizens have the same question on their mind: who am I going to vote for at the election today? The election they are referring to is the State General Election to pick their Governor, Lt. Governor, State Auditor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Attorney General. After an interesting night of speeches at the Statewide Political Rally, the election could go to anyone.
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The election would take place immediately after breakfast to decide the winners as soon as possible to be announced at the Group Pictures later in the day. After the election, the citizens reported to their cities for a brief meeting. The students would then split up to attend some special activities discussing futures about college and careers, including specifically: College Life &Application, College Athletics, Careers in Journalism & Media, Careers in Law, Education, Military, Business, Technology & Engineering, Sustainability & Energy Efficiency, and Campaign & Politics. Different members of the staff belonging to these various fields take this time to lend insight and advice to the citizens who have a big year of decisions ahead of them.
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Afterwards, governmental activities took place including the House and Senate being in session, all courts being in session, city/county officials doing their duties to press for Model City and Model County, Lobbyists holding a conference, and the media planning out their stories and broadcasts for today. Citizens would then head to lunch before heading to the Multipurpose Building for pictures and the announcement of the State Election winners.
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After taking the pictures, the governmental activities would resume, and would again later. There are so many governmental activities that have to get done in the short amount of time they have left here at Boys’ State. Governmental activities would resume after pictures, giving some of the newly appointed elected officials the chance to get straight to work with their new title, as well as prep their city for the Model City and Model County judges tomorrow. This was the last night to put in as much work as they could to capture one of the most prized awards here at Boys’ State. They were hard at work constructing their city and county parks, add things to make their cities stand out, putting their city ordinances in place, advertising their businesses, and anything else possible to catch the judges’ eyes.
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The citizens would head out for another athletic period, trying to win as much events as possible to earn more points towards model City, as well as practice up for The Governor’s Cup, the athletic event against the staff members. The event includes basketball, volleyball, and softball. The staff still remains undefeated for the past 72 years, but the citizens are to the challenge of trying to change that.
After dinner, the citizens would head to Hendricks Hall for their usual assembly, to hear a keynote speaker who was not a former Boys’ Stater, but Girls’ State. The keynote speaker tonight has been involved with the Boys’ State program for numerous years and acts as the Missouri Secretary of State. Robin Carnahan has dedicated her life to service, as her family has for decades. Her keynote address was centered around the importance of service in your community and encouraging the citizens to do something bigger than themselves. But before that, the House of Representatives and Senate were active in a joint session to bring in Robin Carnahan and former Governor Rogers. Rogers farewell address touched on some the values he spoke of in his opening speech, about taking the skills they learned here at Boys’ State back home and applying them in their community. He then challenged the citizens, saying “Are you going to back home and continue to serve and maximize your life?” a challenge that any citizen has the tools to achieve. Robin Carnahan then delivered her keynote address speaking of her family’s long history of service, reason in part that one of our cities is named after the Carnahan family. She spoke of failure and getting past it to keep going to achieve your goals. She left the citizens with three questions to answer: Who are you, where are you going, and what difference will you make? After the inspiring speech, she then swore in new Governor Trevor Burge, a fitting deed to a citizen from the city of her name.
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Also part of the ceremony was the recognition of three outstanding staff members. First being Justin Stevens as an outstanding former citizen serving his community, Dr. Shari Bax for her 15 years of service, and then Ralph Biele for an outstanding 40 years of service to the Missouri Boys’ State program. It was a big assembly after a big day for the citizens. The citizens would head back to their cities for a meeting here the citizens in each city would vote for someone who embodied what Boys’ State stood for and stood out while here at Boys’ State, for the award Citizen of the Week. Each city nominates one candidate to go interview before a panel of judges to decide the winner of an $8,000 scholarship to the college of their choice, one of Boys’ State’s highest individual honors. After the meeting the citizens would head to bed to prepare for their last full day at Missouri Boys State. |
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Did you know...
State elected officials are announced today and Missouri Boys State will have a fully functioning goverment from the city, through the county, to the state level.
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