Melanie Freeman-Brown Nominated for American Legion Girls’ State

Huntington High School junior Melanie Freeman-Brown has been nominated to participate in next summer’s American Legion Auxiliary’s Girls’ State program.

“High school students who have completed their junior year are competitively selected and sponsored by American Legion Auxiliary units for this program, where they learn about the political process by electing officials for all levels of state government and actively running a mock government,” according to the organization’s website. “The participants are assigned to mock cities and either the Federalist Party or Nationalist Party.”

American Legion Auxiliary volunteers work to keep the summer program’s “non-partisan, patriotic and civic objectives are carried out through interactive learning,” states the organization’s website.

“Candidates should be keenly interested in government and current events, and show strong leadership abilities,” according to the organization. “Because the structure of state and local government varies, ALA Girls State programs may vary in content and method of procedure, but each adheres to the same basic core values.”

American Legion Greenlawn Post representatives Charlie Armstrong and Ed O’Shea came to Huntington High School to interview Ms. Freeman-Brown and speak with Social Studies Chairman Joseph Leavy about her nomination. The reps also met Huntington Principal Rochelle C. Brown and senior Walter Kusterbeck, who participated in the American Legion’s Boys’ State program last summer.

The American Legion is the largest wartime veterans service organization with nearly two million members and more than 12,000 posts in communities throughout America. The American Legion, established by an act of Congress in 1919, was instrumental in getting the original GI Bill through Congress and the creation of the Department of Veterans Affairs.