CALVERT CITY, Ky. – Trace Colson, a rising senior at Marshall County High School, will spend next week participating in American Legion Boys State at the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Greenville, Kentucky. William A. Doyle Post 236 in Calvert City is sponsoring Colson.
Participants will take part in activities from Sunday through Friday, June 7-12, that will help them better understand the fundamentals of good citizenship and government.
“I hope to learn more about the government and the people that have made this country great,” Colson said. “It’s definitely one of the highlights of my high school career. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Activities will enable participants to put into practice the theories of American government through the actual operation of city, county and state offices, as organized under the plans of a mythical 51st state. The program’s purpose is to develop a constructive attitude toward America’s form of democracy and to instill a firm belief that our system of social control is not an old, outmoded idealism.
It is, rather, a workable, efficient system that needs only intelligent, alert and informed citizens and an honest administration to make it the effective instrument of protection and regulation visualized by our forefathers. Colson is the son of Matt and Joanna Colson of Benton. He participates in Junior Rotary, Interact and Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Marshall County High, and also plays on the Marshals baseball team.
His mother, a 1993 MCHS graduate, took part in the Girls State corollary in the summer before her senior year.
“It was a great experience,” she said, recalling how impressed she was with the college students who served as staff members for the program.
“They were awesome,” she said. “I remember really looking up to them.” “I’m just excited for Trace to have this experience and discover new things,” Matt Colson said.
The first Boys State program was conducted by the American Legion in 1935 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. At the 17th National Convention of the American Legion later that year, the Legion embraced Boys State as a program for youth. The first program in Kentucky was held in 1940. More than 20,000 young men have participated in Kentucky Boys State.