Legion Auxiliary recognizes Girls State representatives
Two Mariner High School juniors, Catheryn and Katelyn Rossman, were selected and sponsored by the Pine Island American Legion Women’s Auxiliary Post 136 to be sent to Tallahassee during the summer to participate in the Girls State program.
Girls State is the summer leadership and citizenship program sponsored by the American Legion for high school juniors. The American Legion has been celebrating Girls State since 1937 and the Pine Island American Legion Ladies Auxiliary has been celebrating Girls State since 1991.
“This is a really wonderful program,” Auxiliary president Claudine Alvarez said. “It gives these young girls an opportunity to be a part of a program that teaches young women responsible citizenship and love for God and country. Since the inception of the Girls State program in 1937, nearly 1 million young people have had the opportunity to learn first-hand how their state and local government works.”
Young women in their junior level of high school are nominated by their guidance counselors during the summer of their junior year. They then go before a committee of the American Legion and, if accepted, attend Girls State in Tallahassee in their senior year.
“We learned about the program because of our sister, Jerilynn,” Catheryn Rossman said. “She attended Girls State a couple of years ago and we were both interested. We still had to be nominated by our school counselor though and there were more than a dozen kids that turned in applications. We were interviewed by the school counselor and then by the Ladies Auxiliary. We were both very excited to be selected.”
“I am one of several people that have been representing American Legion Post #136 Auxiliary to get these young ladies to be our delegates,” Guylyn DeMere said. “It is such a difficult position to be in because we’re often interviewing 12 or 13 young ladies who are ‘top of the mark’ in one way or another. They’re all excited and want to be delegates to Girls State. But we have to make decisions and this year we selected faces that were pretty familiar to us. We have Katelyn and Cathryn Rossman. Their name is familiar because their sister was a delegate to Girls State a couple of years ago.”
Catheryn Rossman is a member of the National Honors Society, Youth in Government, National Technical Honors Society, co-captain of the varsity girls golf team, Chemistry Club, future officer of the Interact Club, Math Team, Model United Nations and deciding on a pre-med track.
Katelyn Rossman is co-captain of the golf team, Model United Nations, member of Youth in Government, Chemistry Club, Interact and National Honor Society. She is considering a career as an occupational therapist.
“We were very excited to be selected for Girls State,” Cathryn Rossman said. “When we got to Tallahassee, all of us were asked to select a branch of government we’d like to be in. Both Kaitlyn and I selected the Supreme Court. We had to campaign, make speeches, etc., but we didn’t win. We became County Attorneys and got to try a ‘mock trial’ case about a Miami police officer who was off duty and had been approached by a citizen who said they had just been robbed in a MacDonald’s bathroom. The citizen described the suspect and the officer went in pursuit.”
“The case was about whether the police officer, who was not in uniform but armed, should have pursued and arrested the suspect,” Katelyn Rossman said. “We didn’t learn the results of the real case because it involved a minor but we did win our case in the State Supreme Court. The case came to the conclusion that the officer was correct in what he did.”
“We are very grateful to have been chosen for Girls State,” Katelyn Rossman said. “This experience was really eye-opening. We both learned a lot about courtroom trials, how bills are passed, it’s really interesting and this experience taught us a lot. We’d like to thank the American Legion for this wonderful opportunity.”