Past Girls Stater and Active Service Member Comes to Speak

Today Courtney McCullough, a staff sergeant in the Vermont National Guard, came to speak to us about her experiences. In 2006, Sergeant McCullough attended Girl’s State and the following year she graduated from Missisquoi Union High School. She wanted to go to college but was afraid, like any other student, about paying back college loans. She decided to go to basic training at fort Jackson and then enlisted in the army as a mechanic to help pay back her college loans. She deployed to Afghanistan with a unit of 60, which included only four other women. While working with the citizens of Afghanistan, Sergeant McCullough learned her real motivation for serving in the army. She told us how she handed a Pop-Tart to a young girl, who was promptly shoved over by an older man and had her Pop-Tart taken from her. Sergeant McCullough said her deployment helped her not take things for granted and made her feel empowered.

One day during Sergeant McCullough’s deployment, a truck came into her shop that had been hit by a rockets and had severe damage. She told us she remembered cleaning the blood out of the truck and thinking that the person in the truck definitely hadn’t survived. The soldier in this truck, Scott McCullough, did survive, but the rocket had caused all of his internal organs to burst. He also had severe frontal cortex damage. He was airlifted to a hospital in Germany where he stayed in a coma for a month. Afterwards, he was transferred to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He wrote to Sergeant McCullough inquiring about his truck. They talked, and he invited her to visit him in the hospital in D.C. during her leave. At first, she didn’t accept, because her leave was only two weeks long.  However, after convincing from both Scott and her brother, who knew Scott, she visited him in the hospital. They began dating after that visit. Once she returned from her tour, they decided to get married. Sergeant McCullough heard of a competition for the best military love story, which the winner would receive a $70,000 wedding. She wrote in, but didn’t believe she won until WCAX showed up on her lawn. She and Scott were married on December 15, 2013.

Girls State Towns

At Green Mountain Girls State there are four towns, Fournier, Roberts, Petty, and Rouleau. The towns are named after Girls State alumni. Each town has 20-25 girls, along with a junior and senior counselor. Everyday each individual town comes together to discuss matters within the town, cheers, spirit, and how to win model town. While at Girls State, you become a family with your town, and this makes things a lot easier. Your town is your immediate family, and the county is your extended family.  Each town has a different location to hold their meetings.

Each town has decorated a hallway to “show off” their town, and how great it is. Within each decorated hall, you will notice inside jokes and personal meanings behind the posters.During free time each town works on cheers, campaigning, and making special bonds with the members of the town. The towns “compete” against each other to receive points to win the model town award. The girls come with their own ideas, personalities, and contributions to their town.

There are separate roles for girls in the towns, such as “town crier”, and this person is responsible for waking the girls up. If there are not enough positions for every girl then the town is allowed to create fictional roles. The towns help girls from all over Vermont come out of their comfort zone, and explore new opportunities.  

The counselors opening the meetings and preside until a moderator has been selected. A moderator is the girl responsible for the conduct of all the meetings. Girls state is a much better experience, since we have towns.

ALAGMGS Editorial Update

Laura Cassetty Veronica Sioss

Hello from the editors of the Girls State Gazette! This newspaper has been created by you family members and future leaders of America. It is meant to give a glimpse into our wonderful week here at the Vermont Technical College in Randolph. These pieces reflect the many different aspects of life at Girls State from the food to the counselors to campaigning. We would like to extend our gratitude to all the family members and ALA members who have given us this extraordinary opportunity. Our reporters have grown incredibly as individuals and as members of a Girls State family. We are so proud of the work we have put forward in the 71st annual Girls State paper, and we sincerely hope you enjoy reading the creative pieces of Vermont’s daughters.

Side Note from Queen Rani

The first thing Queen Rani said to us was, “I like your enthusiasm.” This year’s delegates have developed into a very enthusiastic group, “more so than past years,” she commented.  Under the direction of Sarah Butson, the girls are afforded more free time to create tighter bonds and form solid lifelong friendships. Girls State can only go up from here!

No Rest for Future Leaders

By: Seychelle D and Kayleigh R

Campers walk into their tiny dorm rooms,

And see inside two beds and two desks.

There isn’t much else.

They sprawl their stuff across the carpeted floor,

And hop onto the seemingly comfortable beds

Which turn out to be not so comfortable.

Getting off their oh so cozy beds in search of a bureau,

They find it stuffed in the closet.

What an interesting start to an exuberant week.

But, in the end, their surroundings wouldn’t matter,

(Partially because they never slept)

Because although the room conditions were unforeseen,

The girls they would meet would help create an unforgettable experience

That would fill the air with laughter and cheers.

A truly extraordinary week in the making!

We’ve Got Spirit, How ‘Bout You?

By Allison Piette

Putting eighty girls together for five days is a recipe for craziness. It’s only the second day and each town has formed tight bonds as well as extreme competitiveness with other towns. When Fournier’s hallway decorations far surpassed those of the other towns, my town, Rouleau, was plotting on how to beat them. Then the singing began. Nobody knows which town started it, but eventually every town would burst out into cheers and chants supporting their towns. It started as simple cheers like “Rouleau Rules” and “Pretty Pettys” and snowballed from there. The quiet primary elections were interrupted by “We’ve got spirit!” being chanted around the room by each town, getting louder and more enthusiastic each time. Lunch today consisted of pizza and a show. There was a conga line and cheers, each bigger and better than the last, trying to compete for most town spirit. If today is only the second day, I’m predicting that there will be confetti cannons and fire breathing by the end of Girls State to keep up with the increasing demand for original cheers.

A Girls State Poem

A Poem

By Alaina Danles, Julia Dunn, and Maya Gershun-Half

Breaking News! A dun colored cow was discovered in Old Dorm. It seems that on their walk back from the veteran’s cemetery, a few girls from one of the towns plotted to bring a cow back. The names of the girls and the town they come from will remain secret to protect their identities.

One of the girls explained “They were just such majestic animals when we saw them and we couldn’t help but want to bring one back to Old Dorm,” after a short pause she continued, “perhaps it was not a very well thought out plan?”

This would not have been an issue if the girls were not on the second floor. But alas, the cow was led upstairs and could not come down on her own. Luckily the entire state banded together in true Girls State fashion and cheered on the cow to believe in herself. She finally was able to descend the stairs and exit the building to rejoin her buddies in the meadow.

ALAGMGS 2014

Hopefully you've all been following our progress on Facebook or Twitter so you know what we've been up to because we've done so much in the few short days we've been together.

We've loved every minute of ALAGMGS and the girls are all incredible. Talk about inspiration!

Today was jam packed with fun activities with the highlights being the General Election and the Inauguration Ceremony. Congratulations to Madeline Ganey our 2014 ALAGMGS Governor as well as Julia Dunn, Lieutenant Governor; Sophia Simkins, Secretary of State; Laura Cassety, Attorney General; Shaylyn Clancy, Treasuer; and Emily Kiernan, State Auditor of Accounts.

All of our girls have put in incredible effort over the last three days and their handwork and dedication to this program has shown.

The newspaper posts are coming!