The American Legion Palmetto Boys State Program will be held again at Anderson University, in Anderson, S.C. for the period of June 11-17, 2017. Last year there were over 1,000 young men from across South Carolina who participated in the program, this year we are expecting even more.
The main objective of Boys State is to take young men who have demonstrated leadership abilities and train them in the practical democratic principles of government. By having these young men participated in the electoral process by running for mock offices on the local and state level we want to convince them that ours is the best form of government yet devised.
The week at Boys State would influence some of these young men to run for political office and help make some very important changes to our state. Now is the time to help them gain some experience in the political arena, experience does help.
The cost to attend Boys State is $300.00 per Delegate who attends, then the Delegate has to pay a registration fee of $45.00 which includes t-shirts and other miscellaneous items. They also have to pay $35.00 for the room key deposit which will be returned to the Delegate when he checks out at the end of the week.
This year with the help of sponsors throughout Dillon and Dillon County the American Legion will be able to send six young men to Palmetto Boys State at Anderson University. These young men were selected by their teachers and counselors to be eligible to be interviewed by the American Legion. The interview process consists of young men being interviewed one at a time, they are asked to give the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America. Then they are given an oral test on questions about the local, State, and Federal government.
The American Legion would like to be able to send all of the young men who were interviewed for Boys State to Anderson University for that week, we believe all of them would gain from that experience.
Delegates and Alternates selected from Dillon Christian School are: Delegate, Garret Collins; Alternate, Hamilton Hodges. Dillon High School: Delegates, Jacorie McCall, Eleazar Cruz, and Jackson Hayes. Alternates, Brian Tanner, Dawson Dove, and Kenneth Graham. Latta High School: Delegates, Colby Lane and Preston Johnson. Alternates, McLeod Carmichael and Zack Turbeville.