February 3, 2025 • 52 mins
Ever wondered how young women are being prepared to lead the future? Join us on the Veterans Sound Off Podcast as we uncover the impact of the Magnolia Girls State Program, a pioneering leadership initiative for high school juniors. Featuring insightful discussions with Angela Kilcrease, Abby Burris, and Camille Bullock, this episode explores how the program empowers participants by fostering a deep understanding of state government and leadership skills. Angela, with her extensive experience, sheds light on the mission of the program, while Abby and Camille share their journeys from delegates to advocates, highlighting the diverse talents and potential of the young women involved.
Discover the technological transformation of the Magnolia Girls State application process, as the program embraces social media and online platforms to enhance participant engagement. We examine how young women are creatively utilizing Instagram and Facebook for their political campaigns, and how the shift to online registration has streamlined operations for a smoother experience. From modernized event documentation to new ways of sharing the journey with families, this episode unpacks the program's forward-thinking approach to nurturing future leaders.
Unveil the vibrant atmosphere of Magnolia Girls State, held at Ole Miss, where creativity and camaraderie flourish during mock elections and beyond. We delve into the logistics of registration and the vital role of sponsorships, emphasizing the importance of school counselors and auxiliary units in promoting diverse participation. Hear stories of resourcefulness and innovation as delegates craft campaign materials and forge lifelong connections. The episode celebrates the personal growth and empowerment that participants experience, underscoring the program's commitment to shaping confident, capable leaders ready to make their mark on the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jerry Allhands (00:00):
This is the Veterans Sound Off Podcast.
I'm your host, jerry Allhands, a veteran of the
US Air Force and Army and aMississippi Pass Department
Commander of the American Legion.
You're invited to join me as wetravel across the state of
Mississippi, visiting theAmerican Legion posts in each
(00:20):
community.
Together, we'll get to know theAmerican Legion family,
including the American LegionAuxiliary, the Sons of the
American Legion and the LegionRiders.
As we travel the state we'llvisit with other groups and
organizations that are servingAmerica's veterans and their
families.
Last week, we returned topost-1990 in Nesbitt, where we
(00:40):
sat down with members of theAmerican Legion Auxiliary Unit
1990.
And now join me as I sit downwith the leadership of the 2025
Magnolia Girls State Program.
"I love girls state.
I love girls state.
In the room with me today arethree very, very special ladies
who are here today to talk about.
(01:00):
Do we call it Magnolia GirlsState?
Magnolia Girls State.
It is a program of the AmericanLegion Auxiliary and I have the
distinct privilege to betalking with.
.
.
Angela Kilcrease (01:11):
I am Angela Kilcrease.
I'm a Past Department President2009, 2010.
I've held several nationaloffices district president.
I've done them all, so mygreatest one is being girls
state director so far.
Um, I have wonderful team here.
(01:32):
They're young, they're bright,they're in, they inspire all of
us to keep going and they'regoing to be our future leaders
of this program.
So we have Abby Burris, who isnow the assistant director.
She was one of my delegates, um, when I was girl state director
prior, before and now she hasmoved all the way up.
(01:53):
She's worked with this programand now she's going to be our
assistant director and ourdirector, hopefully for next
year, right yeah and then wehave, uh, Camille Bullock.
She like she is an art major butbut she is working our public
relations, she's working ourcommunications and she is
getting us online and ready togo for the future us through
(02:20):
social media and our websitesand everything that you can
imagine.
So we're very proud to havethem on this team working with
us, bringing new blood in.
Jerry Allhands (02:32):
Excited to have you.
Angela Kilcrease (02:33):
Yes, you were past department president of
what year 2009- 2010.
Jerry Allhands (02:39):
And I heard you say national.
Angela Kilcrease (02:43):
Yes, I was a national historian.
I was Southern DivisionNational Vice President.
I was on several nationalcommittees, including public
relations and strategic planning.
Abby Burris (02:53):
Hi, I'm Abby Burris .
I am, of course, this year'sassistant director.
I've been involved with GirlsState ever since I was a
delegate.
I was a junior counselor and Iwas a senior counselor these
past couple years.
It's some of my greatestpleasures ever to come back to
Girl State and I love comingback every year.
Camille Bullock (03:10):
Hi, I'm Camille Bullock.
I was a delegate just a coupleyears ago.
I am a younger part of our teamjust really trying to focus in
on the delegates.
So I'm really in charge ofcommunications, really social
media-based, just really tryingto get a one-on-one
(03:32):
communication with thosedelegates.
Jerry Allhands (03:34):
We're definitely going to come back and ask
questions on that, but I want tostart with Ms Angela.
Angela Kilcrease (03:40):
I'll call you Ms Angela or Ms Gilcruz, how
would you like it?
Jerry Allhands (03:43):
Madam President, ms Angela would be fine.
All right, let's talk aboutMagnolia Girls State.
What is Magnolia Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease (03:51):
Magnolia Girls State is a leadership program
that we offer for young girls,juniors going into their senior
year, just like Boys State.
We use government, stategovernment as our tool for the
leadership development and theycome in and they run for offices
on the city level, the countylevel and the state level.
(04:13):
We also do judicial as well,for to run for judges, but it's
we use it our, that's our toolfor the training and the
leadership, but it's to empowerthe women and give them the
confidence that they can do itand they and it works, even
(04:34):
though it's kind ofold-fashioned, but it works.
Jerry Allhands (04:38):
And with the Magnolia Girls State.
Is it a program of the AmericanLegion or a program of the
American Legion Auxiliary Girls?
Angela Kilcrease (04:45):
State is solely auxiliary, solely
auxiliary, and we have to tag ita lot of times.
It is ALA, Magnolia Girl State,and that's how our national
organization wants us to say it.
But it's our program and wegovern it.
We have a board of directorsfor Girls State and it's made up
(05:08):
of this committee and some ofthe officers, but it's solely
Mississippi's program and eachstate has their own, of course,
but this one is ours.
Jerry Allhands (05:21):
And with Magnolia Girls State this year
2025, I'm assuming it's likeBoys State Girls have to be a
junior going into their senioryear.
Right, tell me what you'relooking for in young ladies to
go to Girls State.
Angela Kilcrease (05:35):
Well, we're looking for a myriad of young
ladies.
We want some that are gung-ho,they're energetic and they're a
natural leader and they can comeand develop their skills, and
many of the ones that run fortop eight office that's where
they come in.
They're running for the topstations and the offices.
(05:55):
But you also have young ladiesthat come that never have been
involved in something like this.
They've never been exposed to aleadership program using our
form of government processes todo this, and so they walk in and
they have no idea, and thenthey may be in a rural school.
(06:16):
They don't have exposure tothings like this.
They don't have exposure to thespeakers that we bring to the
table for them.
We have top eight officials inthe state.
They come from Jackson, but wealso bring motivational speakers
, inspiring speakers, to helpthem grow as a human being and
empower them as women to goforward in their lives.
Jerry Allhands (06:39):
Earlier you had spoke about the different
offices that they run for.
Let's assume that the peoplewho are listening to us today
have no idea what we're talkingabout.
What are the offices that theywould be running for?
Angela Kilcrease (06:51):
Okay, you've got your top eight offices.
Okay, you have governor,lieutenant governor, secretary
of state, state auditor,treasurer, insurance
commissioner, insuranceagricultural commissioner,
commissioner, insuranceagricultural commissioner.
We mimic the state governmentin Mississippi, from the state
level to the county level to thecity level, and we mimic that.
(07:13):
We mimic the judicial setup inMississippi, so it's just a
mimic of our state government.
And then we call ourselves weare the state of magnolia and
why do we go with the state ofmagnolia?
Jerry Allhands (07:28):
because, if this is, our we're magnolias.
Mississippi's always magnoliasthe state flower being how the
program mimics the state ofmississippi and in our offices.
You know, when you and I werein school yesterday, we had
civics dude.
I'm assuming that civics hasfallen by the wayside, based on
(07:51):
what I've seen in a lot of thepublic schools it seems not to
be as popular these days I hadto pass civics to graduate high
school.
I remember that so I would.
Would a child excuse me?
Would a student, a candidatefor Mississippi Girls State,
Magnolia Girls State?
Would she benefit from havingtaken a civics course prior to
coming to Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease (08:11):
Not necessarily because we break
into caucuses and in thosecaucuses they start learning
what these are and we give out Ihave a whole packet to describe
each office that we offer andwe send that to them in advance
and so they have an idea of whatit entails.
Now many of these offices arejust figurehead offices but it's
(08:34):
the process of getting electedto that office, being on a
ballot, running for a position,campaigning, doing political
speeches all of this is wrappedup in our party caucus system
and that just gives them,especially the speeches.
They seem to be very scared ofthe speeches but they get up
there and it gives.
They have to muster thatconfidence to get up there,
(08:59):
speak, give their speech, hopingto influence the young voters
out there in the audience tovote for them for a particular
office.
Now, typically it's just whenthey vote for offices.
Is they do the session widevote or all of the delics just
for the top eight, the top tiereight.
The rest of them have done incaucus and it's not, as you know
(09:22):
, stressful.
But these girls they bring theones that are running for top
eight they come to to sessionand they have their campaign
signs made.
They may have a little thingwhere they'll pass out something
for another delegate toremember them.
Vote for me, and so it's it's.
It's interesting to watch themdo this and use their creativity
(09:44):
and their take on what they'rewanting to do, how they're going
to proceed in what they'redoing with this office and
campaigning.
Jerry Allhands (09:54):
So, coming out of a presidential election year
like this year has been, do yousense that it's more exciting in
a presidential year versus offyears?
Abby Burris (10:06):
I would say maybe it's a little bit more exciting
because, like the girls alreadyknow what a campaign is in a
presidential year and especiallyin the gubernatorial race in
2023, people knew, like we hadBrandon Presley come and speak
so we knew, like, what thatcampaign looked like.
So I find in those years it's alittle bit more exciting.
But, especially coming out ofmaybe last year, we might have a
(10:30):
little bit more know what acampaign is, especially with,
like the Kamala Harris coming,what she was in the president in
the Democratic Party andrunning for president.
So I've noticed, like a lot ofgirls in past years, they look
up to like females being inpresidential leadership.
So those campaigns coulddefinitely help at girl state so
(10:53):
you see a lot more excitement.
It's somewhat especially in likethe top eight positions not
particularly like.
Oh, I'm gonna run for mayor orsupervisor.
Yeah, it's really just likerunning for top eight and like,
especially the girl that's withGirls Nation this year, some of
work inspired by Kamala Harrisand things like that.
(11:16):
People in leadership.
So I know this is totallytangent, but speakers this year
I tried to get female leaders tocome and speak to the girls,
like I have state senators comeand speak.
Such as I had Nicole Boyd,Celeste Hurst, Kimberly
Greenback.
They all came and spoke on apanel and they're all state
(11:38):
senators and representatives, sothey were able to come and talk
to the girls just one on oneand ask them plenty of questions
.
We also had state leaders.
Jerry Allhands (11:49):
Any federal Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Abby Burris (11:52):
Cindy Hyde-Smith was unable to come because it's
during the week of session.
Jerry Allhands (11:57):
Yeah.
Abby Burris (11:58):
I do know her office reached out and offered
Lynn Fitch also came.
Lynn Fitch is a great supporterof our program.
Jerry Allhands (12:04):
She's wonderful.
Abby Burris (12:06):
I enjoy her coming.
She really speaks to the girlson a level that they enjoy and
she's a great female leader tolook up to.
In our state we also had staterepresentatives come.
We had Speaker Jason White come.
We also had a lady come andtalk about mental health that's
unrelated to politics but veryrelated and she.
(12:27):
It was 9 o'clock in the morning.
It was one of the best speechesI heard all week about how to
focus on your mental health.
I mean, you're going intocollege.
It's a tough time, so it's awide myriad of speakers.
Camille Bullock (12:41):
But you do see trends of kind of how
politicians run their campaignsand what these speakers come and
speak on.
You see that pop up laterthroughout the week.
Like I've seen politicians gomore on like social media.
So the girls really took thatand ran with it.
This year this is the firsttime we've had social media
campaigns.
It's normally just campaigningthroughout the campus but they
(13:03):
really took it online and likewe really really did that, did a
lot with that on our socialmedia and it pushed out to a lot
more people.
But you and with the speecheslater in the week, like you see
elements of like maybe MichaelWatson said just a little blurb
and the governor is likecampaigning for her final speech
and she says like she quoteshim, like Michael Watson said
(13:26):
earlier in the week.
You see so much of that.
So like they really arelistening and taking in these
things that they're seeing likein the world and the people that
we bring in.
They're really taking so muchfrom that so you're talking
about social media the.
Jerry Allhands (13:39):
Facebook Instagram, that facebook
instagram, that sort of a thing.
How is?
How does that controlled inmagnolia girl state?
Is it?
Is it you're actually settingup a facebook account on the
public facebook or does it gothrough your website?
How does that work?
Camille Bullock (13:56):
um, so the past couple years I've really just
done content all by myself.
So I would I was the eventphotographer and then I would
immediately push that out to theFacebook and the Instagram.
We've recently gotten a websitewe're really trying to
modernize that so where theparents can have like access to
all the pictures and stuff.
But it really just has been melike pushing out these kind of
(14:21):
random pieces of content allthroughout the week.
But I'm really just trying tocapture.
Capture like the girls havingfun and just trying to show the
parents that they're having fun.
Jerry Allhands (14:28):
Okay.
So with the young ladies whoare running for office, I'm
doing air quotes here.
Why am I doing quotes with nocameras?
I'm doing air quotes, uh, andthey're.
They're doing Facebook andInstagram and that sort of thing
.
Is that an actual Facebookaccount?
Instagram?
Oh, it's on their own personalaccount.
Camille Bullock (14:43):
So a lot of girls they um, some of them did
it on their regular instagram,but some made like a separate
account, so it'd be like vote,vote for camille, for governor,
and they would have like all oftheir campaign stuff on that one
account and so, um, they wouldlike tag uh girls stay in the
bio.
We had a hashtag but, yes, theymade specific campaign accounts
(15:04):
and they were.
A lot of.
Jerry Allhands (15:04):
Them were really silly and fun it's things I
don't even know how to do yeahso is.
Are these again you?
You were talking about accounts.
Are these accounts they candelete afterwards, or it's just
something that's going to be outthere?
Camille Bullock (15:15):
they can delete them at their own will usually,
but instagram it's really easy.
We didn't.
They didn't really.
Facebook isn't so popular withthe younger generations, but it
was really popular on Instagram.
Jerry Allhands (15:26):
All right.
So, talking about the websiteearlier, is there a web address
that we can go to now?
Camille Bullock (15:33):
There is, it is alamagnoliagirlstatecom.
Jerry Allhands (15:39):
Okay, alamagnoliacom.
Camille Bullock (15:45):
Girlstate, girlstatecom.
Angela Kilcrease (15:48):
It's long.
Jerry Allhands (15:49):
It is long, yeah , okay, not worthy, got to pull
in close Okay.
Camille Bullock (15:54):
There's a lot of states out there.
Jerry Allhands (15:56):
It is Okay.
A-l-a MagnoliaGirlstatecom.
Camille Bullock (15:59):
Yes, sir.
Jerry Allhands (16:00):
All right, so we're in the beginning process
here.
This is, let's say, January,February 2025.
Girls State starts when.
Camille Bullock (16:09):
June 8th.
June 8th.
Angela Kilcrease (16:12):
Through the 13th.
Abby Burris (16:13):
Through the 13th at the University of Mississippi,
ole.
Camille Bullock (16:17):
Miss Hotty toddy.
Abby Burris (16:18):
Hotty toddy.
Jerry Allhands (16:21):
And for how do we go about applying for
Magnolia Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease (16:27):
Well, this year we're doing an online
registration.
Abby has worked on setting upthe forms and we're doing jot
forms and things like that.
She keeps throwing these termsat me and I'm learning, but she
has created an online form sothey go in, where they're given
the information we gave it tothe units today through scanning
(16:50):
barcodes of how to get to it.
They go in, they fill it outand they send it in and that way
it's their typing.
It was very hard to read theirhandwriting a lot of times when
we had paper, and now they typeit in, we can read it and then
it'll automatically, whenthey're accepted, it goes into
an Excel spreadsheet, which wespent many, many hours trying to
(17:15):
hand-type this stuff into anExcel spreadsheet.
So she is modernizing us andshe's cutting down on the
workforce so we can do somethingelse for Girls' Tape.
Jerry Allhands (17:24):
Okay.
Angela Kilcrease (17:25):
So it's a it's .
It's a magical little thing Ilove it.
Abby Burris (17:29):
So if you were a delegate and you wanted to
register today, you werelistening to this and you were
like, hey, I want to go registerfor girls state so inspired, go
to our website.
There's a big button up at thetop that says register.
Pretty sure that's what it'sdelegate registration delegate
registration.
I'll go there and it tells youstep by step of how to do it.
There's a packet on there withthe unit sponsorship form.
(17:50):
So if you want to get sponsoredby a unit, there's a form on
there to take to your counselorthat has your principal, that
you need to get signed off on.
So it's your weighted gpa,unweighted GPA, act score.
All of that would be needed.
There's also an essay questionon there.
I think that's about it.
(18:10):
I mean it's a pretty in-depthapplication.
It asks you if you're adescendant of a veteran or if a
family member is in the Legionfamily organization.
So it's a long application.
I did it this morning just as asample.
It probably took me 10 minutes,but again I did not answer the
essay question.
(18:30):
But during the applicationprocess if a girl just goes, I
can't handle this anymorethere's a save button at the
bottom sends it to your emailand so after you click that save
button and go back, there it isyou can pick up from where you
left off.
Jerry Allhands (18:44):
You can pick up from there.
Don't have to do it all at onetime.
Don't have to do it all at onetime.
Take a break, go get a soda.
Abby Burris (18:50):
Take a break.
Jerry Allhands (18:51):
Beautiful the qualifications.
Again you were saying goodmoral character, good grades.
Angela Kilcrease (19:00):
Well, yeah, and I think when we do the
application because we ask themyou know, what are your hobbies,
what do you like doing, whathave you accomplished in school?
We ask them these kind ofthings and that gets an idea of
who this girl is.
But this information goes backto their sponsoring unit and the
(19:21):
unit this is their job to callthrough and accept these girls.
So it's very important thatthey get all the information
they can about them and thenthey may ask these girls to come
in and visit the unit.
They speak to them.
It's always been.
A big part of it is to bringingtheir sponsored girls into the
(19:42):
unit, into the post home andpresenting them to everyone.
So it gives them a littleimportance.
But it also tells the girlsthis is who your sponsor is,
this is who's supporting you,this is who's putting this
program on.
A lot of them don't know aboutthe Legion, but anyway, a lot of
(20:04):
the information on theapplication is for the units to
get to learn these girls beforethey shell out the $275 to pay
for it.
Jerry Allhands (20:09):
Answering my questions before I'm asking them
.
I like it.
You said sponsoring unit.
What does that mean?
What does that entail?
Angela Kilcrease (20:17):
All the units in the auxiliary in the state of
Mississippi and every statedoes this.
But it's a grassroots thingbecause each unit is asked to
participate in the Girls Stateprogram.
So they have directors and theyhave assistant directors and a
board and a committee.
But it's actually for a longtime it was.
It's kind of getting away fromit a little bit, but the units
(20:41):
make the decisions.
They say these are the girls wewant to sponsor, these are the
ones we're going to pay for,these are the ones that go
through.
Now, honestly, I've never seenanybody get turned down to go to
Girls' State.
Everybody gets a shot as longas they can find the sponsorship
money.
But the sponsorship moneydoesn't have to come from the
unit.
They can go out and getcorporate sponsors, they can go
(21:05):
and get civic sponsors, parentscan pay for their registration,
so but the units, that's theirs,they they're sending it to the
department and saying this iswho we're sending and they get
credit for that, for that manygirls that they're sending, and
that works their program fromthe local end, which is where we
need it.
Our units are tasked with goingto the schools.
(21:28):
They're our first foot into theschools to find these girls.
They go to the counselors, theygive them the form and they say
we're starting up, we're readyto go, we're ready for you to
give us some recommendations,and a lot of the recommendations
for girls comes from thecounselor at the schools.
So that's why it's importantfor our units to become friends
(21:53):
of the schools in their area,right?
Jerry Allhands (21:56):
And you said it was $275?
$275.
And how long are they atNino-Ur-Girl State?
Angela Kilcrease (22:03):
It starts on Sunday afternoon and it runs
until Friday around noon.
Okay, it's on Sunday afternoonand it runs until Friday around
noon.
So it's a long.
It's a longer conference thanour workshop leadership program,
whatever that you want to callit, than anything else I've seen
and I was in continuingeducation for a long time in my
career.
We did these kind of things.
We're there a whole week andthat's kind of unusual for a
(22:30):
youth program, but we get a lotdone how many students do you
anticipate having?
last year they had 170 somethingstudents.
Our goal this year is 200.
Of course I would love to gethigher than that, but 300 is
about a good number for us, forMississippi, because of the
staffing and all that.
Jerry Allhands (22:52):
But we're shooting for 200 this year, and
I'm going to playfully say thisyou could put 200 girls together
in the same room and everythingbe Cobas City.
Angela Kilcrease (22:59):
It's lovely.
Abby Burris (23:00):
It's lovely.
Well, you're adding staff, soyou're talking 250.
Angela Kilcrease (23:04):
Wow, yeah, that's better than you couldn't
do that, but Jerry if youbrought your equipment to our
general session and you come tothe political rally, your
equipment would just be ringingoff the hook.
Wow.
Abby Burris (23:17):
Girl State could break your equipment.
Yes, it would.
Angela Kilcrease (23:20):
But they're so enthusiastic and they're
getting into this campaignprocess and the Federalists are
going against the Nationalistsand it's just a va-va-va-va-va
and it's a whole evening of thisenthusiasm that is unequal
anything else we do.
Jerry Allhands (23:36):
Okay, so now you bring this up Federalists and
Nationalists.
What is Federalists?
Angela Kilcrease (23:39):
Those are the two parties Republicans,
Democrats and the state ofMagnolia has Federalists and
Nationalists.
It's just a name, Just a namejust a name Just a name.
Jerry Allhands (23:48):
It's all in the name.
Yeah, do you assign themFederalists and Nationalists, or
do they get to choose?
Angela Kilcrease (23:56):
No, we assign them their party and when we
register them in we assign themto a city, now a city which we
name our cities after pastdepartment presidents still
living.
Their city has maybe 15 to 20girls, sometimes a little more,
and they have a senior counselor, two junior counselors, that's
(24:19):
their guardian for the week,their moms, and they work as a
city and then they go tocaucuses and work on the state,
county and judicial level, butthe city always remains the same
on their floor of the dormitory.
Each floor of the dormitory isa city.
Jerry Allhands (24:41):
How many cities are we talking about?
Angela Kilcrease (24:43):
I think we're shooting between eight and ten.
Eight, yeah, okay.
Jerry Allhands (24:48):
And you said we're back at Ole Miss again
this year.
Abby Burris (24:50):
Yes, yes.
Jerry Allhands (24:51):
Now, I was there with you last year.
Abby Burris (24:53):
No, no, you were there with me.
I was there with you.
Yes, and Camille.
Jerry Allhands (24:58):
And it was wonderful.
Angela Kilcrease (24:59):
Yes.
Jerry Allhands (24:59):
Beautiful place, Beautiful place.
I was there for Boys State andthen Girls State.
This is the second year ofGirls City.
Last year wasn't it.
Abby Burris (25:04):
This is the third year in 2025.
I enjoy Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands (25:07):
I graduated from there, so it's great going back
Great campus and they treat usso well there.
Abby Burris (25:14):
It's an awesome campus.
I'm very thankful for them.
They treat us so well.
Having the Grove there andbeing able to do events for the
Grove is awesome.
Doing things outside on themost beautiful campus in the
nation I think it actually gotthat just recently has the union
.
That was built about like in2020.
(25:34):
So the campus is nice.
We stay in a great residencehall there Very nice has a
bathroom for every bedroom, sonobody has to share a bathroom
with like multiple people in thehall.
So that's always great,especially when you're getting
up at seven o'clock in themorning and you don't want to
share a bathroom with everybody.
Jerry Allhands (25:55):
I can imagine that, yeah, security is great
there as well.
Abby Burris (25:58):
Security is awesome .
There's really nothing I cancomplain about at Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands (26:03):
Well, it's Ole Miss.
Abby Burris (26:04):
Well, there's very few things.
I'm not saying that as aMississippi State student, I do
go to Mississippi State now.
Jerry Allhands (26:11):
So how do you play off that being from Ole
Miss and then going toMississippi State?
I mean, really, bobby Cook'sgot to be all over you.
Abby Burris (26:21):
Well, I have an undergraduate degree in
engineering, so I'm getting amaster's degree in industrial
and systems engineering, and OleMiss does not offer that.
Jerry Allhands (26:33):
That's a lot of educational degrees and things
there.
Yeah, man, a student coming toGirl State, magnolia.
Yeah, can I call it Girl Stateor should I call it Magnolia
Girl State?
Angela Kilcrease (26:45):
Magnolia Girl.
State Magnolia Girl.
Jerry Allhands (26:47):
State A student comes there and see how I did
that.
Girls State what can theyexpect to receive at the end of
it?
Is there any kind ofscholarship, any kind of?
Abby Burris (26:58):
There's so many things you can expect.
Such as you have lifelongconnections.
First off, I realize that's notmonetary, that's not anything
physical, but there are stillpeople from Girl State from way
back when that I keep up withall the time, and you just
create a bond with these peopleall through the week they can
expect to receive hands-onlearning.
(27:19):
There's no other program in thestate that you can receive
hands-on learning of thegovernment process.
I mean you're actively voting,you're actively voting for your
governor, things like that.
Uh, I mean there's so many.
You can get involved with ourglee club and ala jesta.
So ala jesta is our yearbook,so at the end of the week we
(27:40):
will have a yearbook that theycan take home with them that
tells them everything that wenton, and so we have a staff of
delegates that put that on.
Uh, we also have a glee clubthat sings the national anthem
and they do a great, they do anawesome job.
There's also is scholarshipopportunities, always for, like,
the top eight, which is yourgovernor on down, uh.
(28:02):
And then there's scholarshipopportunities at the major
universities in the state ofMississippi.
So USM offers a scholarship,ole Miss, of course, and
Mississippi State all offersscholarships to the completed
girls, state delegates.
So at the end of the week theytake that certificate, they can
send it off to their universitywherever they choose to go and
they get a scholarship theirfreshman year.
(28:23):
It does not apply to transferstudents, so just first-year
freshmen.
Jerry Allhands (28:28):
All right, and this information is that listed
on the website where they applyit is listed on the website.
Abby Burris (28:33):
It's also listed on all the financial aid websites
of their university.
Jerry Allhands (28:37):
See, I get a little greedy about this because
my granddaughter's in thisstage group this year let's
definitely sign her up, Boy.
Abby Burris (28:45):
I'm trying Sign her up today I am so trying.
Jerry Allhands (28:47):
She's in Arkansas.
How would that work?
You know she lives in Arkansas.
Abby Burris (28:50):
She can come here.
Angela Kilcrease (28:51):
Can she come here?
Abby Burris (28:53):
We can make an exception.
Angela Kilcrease (28:54):
Yes, especially since you're a Legion
member here.
Jerry Allhands (28:57):
Okay, that's nice to know.
Angela Kilcrease (28:59):
Yes.
Jerry Allhands (28:59):
Are the Legionnaires out there?
Angela Kilcrease (29:02):
We have had a lot of girls come across the
state lines because theirgrandparents or parents are
members here, legion orAuxiliary in Mississippi.
So they come here.
They get sponsored here.
We sponsored one out of my unityears ago that was out of state
, she lived in Louisiana but hergrandparents were members of
(29:22):
our post.
Jerry Allhands (29:23):
She's looking hard at Mississippi State.
She wants to be a veterinarian.
Abby Burris (29:26):
Perfect for that.
Very good, me and Camille coulddefinitely take her on a tour.
Jerry Allhands (29:27):
Oh, there you go , host, she's looking hard at
mississippi state she wants tobe a veterinarian, so perfect,
very good, me and camille coulddefinitely take her on a tour,
oh there you go but you know,one of we talk about those
things.
Angela Kilcrease (29:35):
One of the greatest things that they get
out of this, and what's just forauxiliary members and us trying
to put this program on forthese young ladies, is what they
take away inside.
They come in and you can.
I've had so many mothers andthe girls themselves would say
(29:56):
she's changed when she leftthere.
She has changed, she's come outof her shell.
She knows that she'saccomplished something.
She knows that she'saccomplished something.
We've given her something to beproud of in herself.
We empower her and there's alot of girls that come that are
not overly exuberant orconfident.
(30:19):
They're all kinds and when youcan get one and take them by the
hand and show them, yes, dothis.
And then all this and you watchthem blossom and bloom all week
long and it's an incrediblefeeling and, like you have a
mother call, she says what didyou do with my daughter?
This is not the same girl thatwe had sent to you.
(30:41):
That's worth it, everythingthat we do for this program,
when, when, a girl goes toMagnolia girls day.
Jerry Allhands (30:52):
Uh, address books.
Do we still do address booksguys?
Abby Burris (30:56):
What is it?
Angela Kilcrease (30:57):
That's our allergist and they it's.
It's their little year book andthey get that.
Last night, on Thursday night,they get their allergist is and
they get to pass it around andlet people sign.
They're bonding and especiallyin their cities, the city.
They were there together allweek doing different projects
together.
(31:17):
They bonded.
But if they've been running fortop eight or something else,
those girls bond too.
So it's a lot of bonding.
Jerry Allhands (31:27):
My wife is an alumni of girls state.
I'm not sure it was magnoliagirls state back oh, it's always
been magnolia yeah, we're notgoing to say how many decades
ago that was, because my couchisn't that big.
My son is a graduate of boystate.
Had plans for my grandson to goto boy state, but baseball camp
was the same week, so know howthat works.
(31:48):
So there you go.
So hopefully you'll be seeingmy granddaughter this summer.
Abby Burris (31:52):
We compete with dance camps, so don't let dance
camp.
Camille Bullock (31:55):
Get in the way of girls' day.
Jerry Allhands (31:58):
That's a good point.
That is a good point becausethere's so much going on.
This is like the week afterMemorial Day, right?
Abby Burris (32:03):
Because Boys State is Memorial Day week, y'all are
the week immediately after itskips a week.
Jerry Allhands (32:12):
So what are the things that could potentially
get in the way of a young ladygetting to go to Girls State?
Abby Burris (32:18):
Her schedule.
Angela Kilcrease (32:19):
All the sports camp, we competed against a lot
of activities to come to GirlsState.
It's always been that way.
Because the summer hits, thekids are going in different
directions.
Yes, so we tried to do oursearlier in the summer because of
(32:39):
certain things that camefurther along down the line and
it seems to have been a nichefor us that we've created and so
we've not had too much.
But you're always going to havecompetition Always.
Abby Burris (32:52):
It could also be particularly hard because I know
schools on the coast have movedto like year-round schools and
so like they only have so manyweeks that are off and so mom
and daddy could go hey, get inthe car, we're going to the
beach while you're off, not, hey, you're going to Girl State.
So there's a lot of competitionthere also and I know like
(33:12):
there's other leadership campsLast year people couldn't come
to Girl State because it endedon Saturday and there's a
leadership camp that goes to DCthat I was involved in way back
when and some girls were notable to come to Girl State
because they were leaving to goto DC on that leadership camp.
Angela Kilcrease (33:27):
And see, we had run in that before where you
know.
That's why we did not end onSaturday.
It's because they were havingto go to the next one.
Abby Burris (33:37):
Yeah.
Angela Kilcrease (33:37):
I mean some of these girls.
They're booked every weekduring the summer.
Jerry Allhands (33:41):
Yeah, I'm running into that already.
Angela Kilcrease (33:44):
Yeah, and so they're run ragged because we've
had girls packed.
When they leave Girls State,they have their luggage to go to
the next one and they're goingdirectly to an airport, or
they're going directly to thenext event.
Abby Burris (33:57):
I know when I went to Girls State back when.
So I left Girls State on Friday, I packed my bag to go to DC
and then I left that morning at5 o'clock and went to DC.
Wow to go to DC.
And then I left that morning atfive o'clock and went to DC Wow
.
So the week, the that betweenyour junior and senior year is a
busy time because there's somany leadership camps that want
to prepare you for college outthere and you could also like
(34:20):
want to go tour a school.
Say, I want to go tour USMduring the summer.
There's also that time whileI'm not in school, especially
with like these AP and dualcredit courses.
They don't allow you time offfrom school to go visit schools,
so you compete for that, wowyeah.
Jerry Allhands (34:39):
So, as we're getting close to wrapping this
interview up, tell me the steps.
What should a parent and adelegate potentially delegate be
starting from right now?
Today and we just talked abouta schedule we're three months,
four or five months out.
You know where do we start.
What do we do.
Angela Kilcrease (34:58):
We start by going on and get the application
.
That's the first thing.
Abby Burris (35:01):
I think they need to go to the website and just
look around and see what factswe have on there first and see
if they would be even interestedin the application process.
Angela Kilcrease (35:10):
If we fit in their schedule.
Abby Burris (35:11):
If we fit in their schedule, of course, that's a
big thing.
Angela Kilcrease (35:14):
And then they fill out the application, then
they go find a sponsoring unitwhich we're going to provide
them this information of who isnear them that they could go and
ask to sponsor we're going todo that of who is near them that
they could go and ask tosponsor.
We're going to do that.
Or they can go and find theirown sponsorship through a civic
(35:34):
organization in their town ortheir church or bottom line
their parents could pay it ifthey wanted to do that.
But they still need to havesome kind of a unit to sign off
on their application, thatthey've seen the applications.
But that just keeps the unitinvolved in this program and
working it.
That's important.
Jerry Allhands (35:54):
Website applications.
Sponsoring unit.
How much?
$275.
$275 to go.
I'm sending my granddaughter togo.
How much should I give her tohave for spending money?
Angela Kilcrease (36:07):
You don't need very much.
Abby Burris (36:09):
They don't really have time $50 to $100, maybe
Because we plan on having likemerchandise.
Actually Camille is working onthis for us right now.
We're going to have merchandiselike sweatshirts, tote bags,
cups, things like that for themto buy at Girls State, and they
could also maybe want to buy acouple snacks, like out of the
(36:30):
vending machine.
But again we'll have socials.
Angela Kilcrease (36:32):
But they can bring their own snacks to the
room.
Abby Burris (36:33):
They can bring their own snacks and I promise
you, like the 15 girls that aregoing to run for governor,
they're all going to bringsnacks and they're all going to
be your new best friend, because, again, at the end of the day,
because again at the end of theday, there can only be two
governor's candidates andthey're going to have like a
million snacks because they didnot get governor.
Because, again, 15 down to two,you're bound to have one on
(36:53):
your floor.
Jerry Allhands (36:57):
They're all going to bring you their snacks
from their losing campaign orwhatever.
Okay Now, campaigns just likerunning for political office.
You've got to have the money torun for office Somebody's at
home and they're thinkingthey're going to run for
governor.
Should they start raising fundsmoney to actually run for
governor?
Abby Burris (37:16):
No, it shouldn't cost you that much.
Maybe it costs you $50.
Angela Kilcrease (37:20):
One of our stipulations is you have to make
your own campaign materials.
We don't want, because itequals out the playing ground.
We don't want somebody to go toKinko's and print up all this
fancy stuff.
But you have other girls whocan't do that, so they have to
create their own campaign signsand their own campaign ideas.
Jerry Allhands (37:41):
So these are things they do while they're on
campus, or do they bring it from?
Abby Burris (37:44):
home.
Angela Kilcrease (37:45):
They bring it with them.
They can do it before I know agirl and that's the best way to
do it, to be prepared, andthat's what we tell them in
their orientations that we givethem prior to coming to Girl
State.
Jerry Allhands (37:56):
So a month before you come to Girl State,
you've already made up your mindI'm going to run for governor.
Abby Burris (38:00):
No I mean they can decide the day of I want to run
for governor.
Angela Kilcrease (38:05):
I know a girl that-, but they won't be
prepared like other girls will.
No, yeah.
Abby Burris (38:09):
I know a girl last year that ran for governor.
She made friendship braceletsand gave them out to campaign.
But of course, like she didn'tget that far, so she just gave
them out to everybody and itsaid like A-L-A-M-G-S on it.
Jerry Allhands (38:21):
It was really cool.
Camille Bullock (38:23):
doesn't fit, but I have it yeah, she gave it
like to everybody yeah they doget really creative and really
crafty, though like you can'teven imagine some of the things
the girls come up with.
Like I have probably six ofthose little honey sticks
sitting in my on a pencil cup inmy office and I thought it was
the most creative thing.
I don't know if that girl won,but it was so cute and creative.
(38:43):
So if you're thinking aboutcampaigning, really, really,
think about it.
There's lots of accounts thatI've been tagged in.
Girls were thinking aboutcampaigning for governor almost
like half a month before Istarted getting tagged in lots
and lots of accounts and it'sjust not the governor.
Angela Kilcrease (39:01):
I have seen girls come.
They're running forcommissioner of agriculture and
she came dressed as a cow.
She wore a cow outfit all weeklong and they and all week long
well with her t-shirt, with hert-shirt and then we had to be
able to see it though pleasedon't.
(39:22):
You have to wear your t-shirtbut she, but they farmers have
come through.
We've had them in wagons, um.
We have one lady.
I remember her governor.
She was from laurel and she umhad a hannah banana because her
last name was, her name washannah, so she called herself
hannah banana and she had thisbig hat, a fruit banana with
(39:45):
mostly bananas and she ran onthat.
It was the cutest thing she wonthat year.
It was so creative.
Every year we were amazed ofwhat they can come with and
present to their.
Creativity is really remarkable.
Jerry Allhands (40:02):
I just flashed back on Chiquita Banana.
I'm sorry.
It's going to be in my head forthe rest of the night.
Angela Kilcrease (40:07):
I'll never forget Hannah Banana.
I'm sorry, it's going to be inmy head for the rest of the
night.
I know I'll never forget HannahBanana and if she ever hears
this podcast I hope she'll ringout.
But they come and it's amazing,and some of them make these
huge banners.
We couldn't even put them up,but you know we don't really
limit them or tell them what todo.
It's just using their owncreativity for this and what the
(40:31):
university allow us to do.
Abby Burris (40:32):
I think we did have to limit on how big the banners
could be last year because,like Ole Miss, like can't handle
like big banners all over theplace.
So definitely like there mightbe some stipulations on that,
but like not right now.
Camille Bullock (40:46):
Yeah, there might be some stipulations on
that, but not right now.
Yeah, within fire safetyprecautions, yeah definitely
don't like.
Abby Burris (40:52):
we had a problem with tying things up to exit
signs, so we definitely can't dothat.
Angela Kilcrease (40:59):
We definitely can't do fire hazards In
Southern Miss they didn't liketape on the glass and they would
also put tape.
I always told them, bluepainter's tape, blue for the
plow, for the plaster on thewall, on the big columns and all
that.
They take the paint off.
Abby Burris (41:15):
But we've had that something that's so much cheaper
than posters is get likestickers or like buttons that
everybody can wear, becauseeverybody loves wearing stickers
and buttons.
Or like make your own with likesafety pins and little Post-it
notes.
One of my favorite girls fromlast year it was literally a
safety pin hot glued with somelike poster stickers with her
(41:36):
name on it.
And see, that's creative.
Sure, yeah, that's creative.
Angela Kilcrease (41:40):
But the girls also get other benefits to
prepare them for college andhelping them decide their senior
year is very important.
To prepare them for college andhelping them decide their
senior year is very important.
So we have a college day whereall the universities and
community colleges, a lot ofROTC they come and they do a
(42:01):
show for them and the ladies getto go in and go to each booth
and hear what they've got, pickup materials for schools and
that's been a very successfulprogram that we have in here
forever, ever, ever and do youalready have a day planned out,
that's on wednesday, on?
wednesday it's on wednesdayafternoon of girls state it was
thursday thursday is breakoutsessions oh yeah, that's right
(42:25):
that's, and on thursday,breakout session is, you know,
all the mayors get in the roomand all the supervisors get in
the room the county officialsand we actually bring in local
cities around us.
We bring in their officials tocome speak to the girls and say
this is my job.
This is what I do as analderman.
This is what I do as asupervisor.
(42:46):
This is what I do as a taxcollector.
You know, we bring them all inand we have those breakout
sessions according to what theywere elected to.
Jerry Allhands (42:56):
Do you still plan on having for the boys' day
?
It's called Legion Day, familyDay.
Angela Kilcrease (43:00):
We had that on Thursday night Legion, night
Legion and auxiliary night yes,Now I know the food is really
good there, Really good.
What did you eat in thecafeteria or no?
Jerry Allhands (43:11):
Both the cafeteria was great Okay.
Angela Kilcrease (43:15):
Because you're going to be in the cafeteria
this year.
Jerry Allhands (43:17):
Raspberry ice cream last year.
Bobby Cook, who was ourdepartment chaplain at the time.
Who's now our alternate NEC?
Let's just say that he and Iarm-wrestled over the last
little bit of raspberry icecream, and that little scandal
won you can mess with a chaplain.
Abby Burris (43:32):
They had some hottie-tottie red ice cream and
blue ice cream last year andevery girl's face after dinner
was like red and blue from thehottie-tottie red and blue ice
cream.
Jerry Allhands (43:43):
Oh, I like that, so we're calling it Legion,
it's called Legion Night.
Abby Burris (43:48):
Legion Night Auxiliary and Legion Night,
don't we include both?
Angela Kilcrease (43:51):
of them.
Well, we do, but it's alwaysbeen named Legion Night, but we
bring our officers from theLegion and the department
officers from the Legion and theAuxiliary.
We bring the past departmentpresidents that the cities are
named for who can still travel.
Abby Burris (44:10):
We invite, we invite any auxiliary member or
legion member to come and justsee what Girl State's about well
as a past department commander.
Jerry Allhands (44:21):
It's an honor to be there.
I've enjoyed it.
I hope you'll let me come backagain we enjoy having you we
have a great time.
Let me let me get ready to wrapup for you here, and and and
ask if, if I may, points ofcontact.
How can we reach you other thanthe website?
Can we call?
Do we just go through ourauxiliary units or no, you can
call us.
Angela Kilcrease (44:41):
We have, or email us my, as the director I
have.
My email address is AngelaKilcrease
A-N-G-E-L-A-K-I-L-C-R-E-A-S-E atbellsouth, b-e-l-s-o-u-t-h dot
net.
Now you can tell that I haveone of the oldest emails of AT&T
(45:04):
.
Jerry Allhands (45:04):
Bell.
Angela Kilcrease (45:04):
South, yes, bell South.
Abby Burris (45:07):
Also Girl State has an email.
It's also on the website.
It's magnoliagirlstate atgmailcom.
That comes to me and Camilleand me and Camille are just kind
of sifting through those asthey come in.
That's general questions thatyou might have, like when does
applications come out, thingslike that.
So definitely they come throughthere.
(45:28):
All your forms come throughthere.
Form questions can be directedto there so I can answer them
for whomever.
Jerry Allhands (45:36):
And everything is on the website up and ready
to go Website's up and have atit.
Angela Kilcrease (45:41):
And Camille's going to be tweaking it and
making it better, better, everyday that she gets a chance in
between class.
Jerry Allhands (45:47):
You did say tweaking and not twerking, right
?
No, she's tweaking, I was justrecently educated that there is
a difference between tweakingand twerking.
Abby Burris (45:55):
Yeah, there's a difference.
There's definitely a difference.
Jerry Allhands (45:58):
She's turning bright red.
Angela Kilcrease (46:00):
We don't want to do twerking we definitely
don't.
Abby Burris (46:03):
We definitely don't , it was one of those.
Jerry Allhands (46:05):
Papa, do you realize what word you just used?
Angela Kilcrease (46:07):
No, twerking is not a Girl State thing.
Abby Burris (46:10):
I'm sorry we don't do that at Girl State, not even
in the context.
Jerry Allhands (46:14):
I was using it Right.
It was so embarrassing, it waswonderful.
Anything that you would like toshare with us before we wrap up
today.
Angela Kilcrease (46:21):
Anything, send us your best and your brightest
.
Abby Burris (46:25):
We're looking for the state's future leaders.
We're looking for people thatcan go on and be state senators
teachers, lawyers, doctors,things like that.
Angela Kilcrease (46:32):
that will affect anybody, basically, and
we're still looking for ourfirst president of Girls Nation.
We are still looking forsomeone who's going to go on and
be president of the UnitedStates.
We had one of our juniormembers here this morning who
sat in our session and I we said, is there a future president
here?
And this one girl popped up yes, she was president.
(46:55):
Columbus, mississippi.
Abby Burris (46:56):
She's from the Columbus Post and she popped up
to me a pate, I think it'sTeresa.
Star.
Her name was her name Star,because I was like that's catchy
yeah, but she, I mean shepopped right up.
Angela Kilcrease (47:09):
She was going to be the next president, a
female president for the unitedstates.
I said go get at it I said butcome to girl state first girl
states first, just a reminder itis not always a girl who's
involved.
Camille Bullock (47:22):
It's not always a girl with the gpa.
I was never picked for theleadership programs and I'm
sitting here today.
I never thought I would be here.
I didn't want to go to GirlsState, but I love it now.
So even if you think you'llhate it, try it out.
But if you think you'll love it, definitely try it out.
Jerry Allhands (47:39):
Thank you.
Yeah, that was something thatsomebody brought up to me
recently was they had no ideawhat Girls State was about, what
to expect?
Yeah, a long time ago.
Angela Kilcrease (47:47):
We hear that all the time.
Jerry Allhands (47:48):
You know, did not go prepared.
How do we get the excuse me forusing this?
How do we get the wallflower,the quiet one in the corner, to
get involved?
Abby Burris (47:58):
I think that's where the school counselors of
the units come in.
They go and find these people.
Angela Kilcrease (48:03):
Hey, I go to church with her and she looks
like she would take advantage ofgoing to Girl State and my
biggest advice to them is, ifthey're accepted to Girl State
and they're coming, is to attendone of these mandatory on face
to face orientation sessionsthat we give.
We go over everything and talkthem through all the processes,
(48:26):
what to to expect, what to bringand how it's going to be.
And we do these across thestate, in the district areas.
We combine some, but thosecoming to those orientations is
really important for you to beprepared to come to Girls State
and be successful.
Jerry Allhands (48:44):
So it's up to us to make sure that the auxiliary
units are getting the words outabout those orientation
meetings, those videos that'sgoing to be on, it's going to be
on the website.
Angela Kilcrease (48:54):
They will be instructed they will receive
once they are accepted to girlsstate.
They will get this informationand the list of the dates and
then where, the places and ofwhen to come to orientation.
Even if they can't come to theone, if there's a date conflict
in their area they can pickanother one in the state.
We're going to do five to sixof them across the state.
Abby Burris (49:16):
We're hoping to also do a remote one so we can
talk with them live about what'sgoing on, and it's not a
recorded something that I haveto watch before I come, because
there's so much dialect that youget by just talking with
somebody one-on-one, more thanjust a recorded video.
Angela Kilcrease (49:33):
They get to ask questions and the important
part of that those on-site istheir parents come with them.
The parents get to hear it.
They bring grandparents withthem.
I mean the ones that I've donein the past, most of the ones.
They're packed houses.
I have a packed house and theyget to come to a Legion post.
(49:54):
Many people have not beeninside a Legion post.
Now we're bringing these folksinside to see what we're about,
who we are.
They see the walls and that'sanother important aspect of
these on-site orientations.
Abby Burris (50:07):
Because I personally can say I knew
nothing about the Legion, theAuxiliary, anything like that,
before Girl State and look, I'mnow a part of the Auxiliary.
I was able to join theAuxiliary, so Girl State is a
great way to be able to put thatfoot in the door, of know what
the Legion, the Auxiliary is,things like that.
Jerry Allhands (50:25):
This is great and to be a part.
Angela Kilcrease (50:27):
Yeah, look what we got.
Jerry Allhands (50:29):
Beautiful.
Angela Kilcrease (50:30):
With these young ladies.
Jerry Allhands (50:31):
Thank you all so much for being here with me
today.
Angela Kilcrease (50:32):
Thank you, Jerry, thank you, Jerry, thank
you.
"I love girls state.
Jerry Allhands (50:38):
"I love girls state and that was our visit
with the leadership of the 2025Magnolia Girls State Program.
Be sure to join us next Mondaymorning as we visit with another
member of the American Legionfamily.
A very special thank you toJonathan Michael Fleming for his
(50:59):
musical talents.
You can find his CDs and videoson Spotify, amazon Music and
YouTube.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode and look forward to your
feedback, and ask that yousubscribe to and share the
Veterans Sound Off podcast withyour friends and family.
If you have a comment,suggestion or question, or you
would like to become a supporterof this podcast, please send an
email to JDAllHands atOutlookcom that's
(51:23):
J-D-A-L-L-H-A-N-D-S atOutlookcom, or by calling us at
662-902-6658, and we'll get backto you as soon as possible.
This has been a production ofAll Hands Media LLC, with
offices in Renalar Mississippi.
All rights reserved.
This is the Veterans Sound Off Podcast.
I'm your host, jerry Allhands, a veteran of the
US Air Force and Army and aMississippi Pass Department
Commander of the American Legion.
You're invited to join me as wetravel across the state of
Mississippi, visiting theAmerican Legion posts in each
(00:20):
community.
Together, we'll get to know theAmerican Legion family,
including the American LegionAuxiliary, the Sons of the
American Legion and the LegionRiders.
As we travel the state we'llvisit with other groups and
organizations that are servingAmerica's veterans and their
families.
Last week, we returned topost-1990 in Nesbitt, where we
(00:40):
sat down with members of theAmerican Legion Auxiliary Unit
1990.
And now join me as I sit downwith the leadership of the 2025
Magnolia Girls State Program.
"I love girls state.
I love girls state.
In the room with me today arethree very, very special ladies
who are here today to talk about.
(01:00):
Do we call it Magnolia GirlsState?
Magnolia Girls State.
It is a program of the AmericanLegion Auxiliary and I have the
distinct privilege to betalking with.
.
.
Angela Kilcrease (01:11):
I am Angela Kilcrease.
I'm a Past Department President2009, 2010.
I've held several nationaloffices district president.
I've done them all, so mygreatest one is being girls
state director so far.
Um, I have wonderful team here.
(01:32):
They're young, they're bright,they're in, they inspire all of
us to keep going and they'regoing to be our future leaders
of this program.
So we have Abby Burris, who isnow the assistant director.
She was one of my delegates, um, when I was girl state director
prior, before and now she hasmoved all the way up.
(01:53):
She's worked with this programand now she's going to be our
assistant director and ourdirector, hopefully for next
year, right yeah and then wehave, uh, Camille Bullock.
She like she is an art major butbut she is working our public
relations, she's working ourcommunications and she is
getting us online and ready togo for the future us through
(02:20):
social media and our websitesand everything that you can
imagine.
So we're very proud to havethem on this team working with
us, bringing new blood in.
Jerry Allhands (02:32):
Excited to have you.
Angela Kilcrease (02:33):
Yes, you were past department president of
what year 2009- 2010.
Jerry Allhands (02:39):
And I heard you say national.
Angela Kilcrease (02:43):
Yes, I was a national historian.
I was Southern DivisionNational Vice President.
I was on several nationalcommittees, including public
relations and strategic planning.
Abby Burris (02:53):
Hi, I'm Abby Burris .
I am, of course, this year'sassistant director.
I've been involved with GirlsState ever since I was a
delegate.
I was a junior counselor and Iwas a senior counselor these
past couple years.
It's some of my greatestpleasures ever to come back to
Girl State and I love comingback every year.
Camille Bullock (03:10):
Hi, I'm Camille Bullock.
I was a delegate just a coupleyears ago.
I am a younger part of our teamjust really trying to focus in
on the delegates.
So I'm really in charge ofcommunications, really social
media-based, just really tryingto get a one-on-one
(03:32):
communication with thosedelegates.
Jerry Allhands (03:34):
We're definitely going to come back and ask
questions on that, but I want tostart with Ms Angela.
Angela Kilcrease (03:40):
I'll call you Ms Angela or Ms Gilcruz, how
would you like it?
Jerry Allhands (03:43):
Madam President, ms Angela would be fine.
All right, let's talk aboutMagnolia Girls State.
What is Magnolia Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease (03:51):
Magnolia Girls State is a leadership program
that we offer for young girls,juniors going into their senior
year, just like Boys State.
We use government, stategovernment as our tool for the
leadership development and theycome in and they run for offices
on the city level, the countylevel and the state level.
(04:13):
We also do judicial as well,for to run for judges, but it's
we use it our, that's our toolfor the training and the
leadership, but it's to empowerthe women and give them the
confidence that they can do itand they and it works, even
(04:34):
though it's kind ofold-fashioned, but it works.
Jerry Allhands (04:38):
And with the Magnolia Girls State.
Is it a program of the AmericanLegion or a program of the
American Legion Auxiliary Girls?
Angela Kilcrease (04:45):
State is solely auxiliary, solely
auxiliary, and we have to tag ita lot of times.
It is ALA, Magnolia Girl State,and that's how our national
organization wants us to say it.
But it's our program and wegovern it.
We have a board of directorsfor Girls State and it's made up
(05:08):
of this committee and some ofthe officers, but it's solely
Mississippi's program and eachstate has their own, of course,
but this one is ours.
Jerry Allhands (05:21):
And with Magnolia Girls State this year
2025, I'm assuming it's likeBoys State Girls have to be a
junior going into their senioryear.
Right, tell me what you'relooking for in young ladies to
go to Girls State.
Angela Kilcrease (05:35):
Well, we're looking for a myriad of young
ladies.
We want some that are gung-ho,they're energetic and they're a
natural leader and they can comeand develop their skills, and
many of the ones that run fortop eight office that's where
they come in.
They're running for the topstations and the offices.
(05:55):
But you also have young ladiesthat come that never have been
involved in something like this.
They've never been exposed to aleadership program using our
form of government processes todo this, and so they walk in and
they have no idea, and thenthey may be in a rural school.
(06:16):
They don't have exposure tothings like this.
They don't have exposure to thespeakers that we bring to the
table for them.
We have top eight officials inthe state.
They come from Jackson, but wealso bring motivational speakers
, inspiring speakers, to helpthem grow as a human being and
empower them as women to goforward in their lives.
Jerry Allhands (06:39):
Earlier you had spoke about the different
offices that they run for.
Let's assume that the peoplewho are listening to us today
have no idea what we're talkingabout.
What are the offices that theywould be running for?
Angela Kilcrease (06:51):
Okay, you've got your top eight offices.
Okay, you have governor,lieutenant governor, secretary
of state, state auditor,treasurer, insurance
commissioner, insuranceagricultural commissioner,
commissioner, insuranceagricultural commissioner.
We mimic the state governmentin Mississippi, from the state
level to the county level to thecity level, and we mimic that.
(07:13):
We mimic the judicial setup inMississippi, so it's just a
mimic of our state government.
And then we call ourselves weare the state of magnolia and
why do we go with the state ofmagnolia?
Jerry Allhands (07:28):
because, if this is, our we're magnolias.
Mississippi's always magnoliasthe state flower being how the
program mimics the state ofmississippi and in our offices.
You know, when you and I werein school yesterday, we had
civics dude.
I'm assuming that civics hasfallen by the wayside, based on
(07:51):
what I've seen in a lot of thepublic schools it seems not to
be as popular these days I hadto pass civics to graduate high
school.
I remember that so I would.
Would a child excuse me?
Would a student, a candidatefor Mississippi Girls State,
Magnolia Girls State?
Would she benefit from havingtaken a civics course prior to
coming to Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease (08:11):
Not necessarily because we break
into caucuses and in thosecaucuses they start learning
what these are and we give out Ihave a whole packet to describe
each office that we offer andwe send that to them in advance
and so they have an idea of whatit entails.
Now many of these offices arejust figurehead offices but it's
(08:34):
the process of getting electedto that office, being on a
ballot, running for a position,campaigning, doing political
speeches all of this is wrappedup in our party caucus system
and that just gives them,especially the speeches.
They seem to be very scared ofthe speeches but they get up
there and it gives.
They have to muster thatconfidence to get up there,
(08:59):
speak, give their speech, hopingto influence the young voters
out there in the audience tovote for them for a particular
office.
Now, typically it's just whenthey vote for offices.
Is they do the session widevote or all of the delics just
for the top eight, the top tiereight.
The rest of them have done incaucus and it's not, as you know
(09:22):
, stressful.
But these girls they bring theones that are running for top
eight they come to to sessionand they have their campaign
signs made.
They may have a little thingwhere they'll pass out something
for another delegate toremember them.
Vote for me, and so it's it's.
It's interesting to watch themdo this and use their creativity
(09:44):
and their take on what they'rewanting to do, how they're going
to proceed in what they'redoing with this office and
campaigning.
Jerry Allhands (09:54):
So, coming out of a presidential election year
like this year has been, do yousense that it's more exciting in
a presidential year versus offyears?
Abby Burris (10:06):
I would say maybe it's a little bit more exciting
because, like the girls alreadyknow what a campaign is in a
presidential year and especiallyin the gubernatorial race in
2023, people knew, like we hadBrandon Presley come and speak
so we knew, like, what thatcampaign looked like.
So I find in those years it's alittle bit more exciting.
But, especially coming out ofmaybe last year, we might have a
(10:30):
little bit more know what acampaign is, especially with,
like the Kamala Harris coming,what she was in the president in
the Democratic Party andrunning for president.
So I've noticed, like a lot ofgirls in past years, they look
up to like females being inpresidential leadership.
So those campaigns coulddefinitely help at girl state so
(10:53):
you see a lot more excitement.
It's somewhat especially in likethe top eight positions not
particularly like.
Oh, I'm gonna run for mayor orsupervisor.
Yeah, it's really just likerunning for top eight and like,
especially the girl that's withGirls Nation this year, some of
work inspired by Kamala Harrisand things like that.
(11:16):
People in leadership.
So I know this is totallytangent, but speakers this year
I tried to get female leaders tocome and speak to the girls,
like I have state senators comeand speak.
Such as I had Nicole Boyd,Celeste Hurst, Kimberly
Greenback.
They all came and spoke on apanel and they're all state
(11:38):
senators and representatives, sothey were able to come and talk
to the girls just one on oneand ask them plenty of questions
.
We also had state leaders.
Jerry Allhands (11:49):
Any federal Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Abby Burris (11:52):
Cindy Hyde-Smith was unable to come because it's
during the week of session.
Jerry Allhands (11:57):
Yeah.
Abby Burris (11:58):
I do know her office reached out and offered
Lynn Fitch also came.
Lynn Fitch is a great supporterof our program.
Jerry Allhands (12:04):
She's wonderful.
Abby Burris (12:06):
I enjoy her coming.
She really speaks to the girlson a level that they enjoy and
she's a great female leader tolook up to.
In our state we also had staterepresentatives come.
We had Speaker Jason White come.
We also had a lady come andtalk about mental health that's
unrelated to politics but veryrelated and she.
(12:27):
It was 9 o'clock in the morning.
It was one of the best speechesI heard all week about how to
focus on your mental health.
I mean, you're going intocollege.
It's a tough time, so it's awide myriad of speakers.
Camille Bullock (12:41):
But you do see trends of kind of how
politicians run their campaignsand what these speakers come and
speak on.
You see that pop up laterthroughout the week.
Like I've seen politicians gomore on like social media.
So the girls really took thatand ran with it.
This year this is the firsttime we've had social media
campaigns.
It's normally just campaigningthroughout the campus but they
(13:03):
really took it online and likewe really really did that, did a
lot with that on our socialmedia and it pushed out to a lot
more people.
But you and with the speecheslater in the week, like you see
elements of like maybe MichaelWatson said just a little blurb
and the governor is likecampaigning for her final speech
and she says like she quoteshim, like Michael Watson said
(13:26):
earlier in the week.
You see so much of that.
So like they really arelistening and taking in these
things that they're seeing likein the world and the people that
we bring in.
They're really taking so muchfrom that so you're talking
about social media the.
Jerry Allhands (13:39):
Facebook Instagram, that facebook
instagram, that sort of a thing.
How is?
How does that controlled inmagnolia girl state?
Is it?
Is it you're actually settingup a facebook account on the
public facebook or does it gothrough your website?
How does that work?
Camille Bullock (13:56):
um, so the past couple years I've really just
done content all by myself.
So I would I was the eventphotographer and then I would
immediately push that out to theFacebook and the Instagram.
We've recently gotten a websitewe're really trying to
modernize that so where theparents can have like access to
all the pictures and stuff.
But it really just has been melike pushing out these kind of
(14:21):
random pieces of content allthroughout the week.
But I'm really just trying tocapture.
Capture like the girls havingfun and just trying to show the
parents that they're having fun.
Jerry Allhands (14:28):
Okay.
So with the young ladies whoare running for office, I'm
doing air quotes here.
Why am I doing quotes with nocameras?
I'm doing air quotes, uh, andthey're.
They're doing Facebook andInstagram and that sort of thing
.
Is that an actual Facebookaccount?
Instagram?
Oh, it's on their own personalaccount.
Camille Bullock (14:43):
So a lot of girls they um, some of them did
it on their regular instagram,but some made like a separate
account, so it'd be like vote,vote for camille, for governor,
and they would have like all oftheir campaign stuff on that one
account and so, um, they wouldlike tag uh girls stay in the
bio.
We had a hashtag but, yes, theymade specific campaign accounts
(15:04):
and they were.
A lot of.
Jerry Allhands (15:04):
Them were really silly and fun it's things I
don't even know how to do yeahso is.
Are these again you?
You were talking about accounts.
Are these accounts they candelete afterwards, or it's just
something that's going to be outthere?
Camille Bullock (15:15):
they can delete them at their own will usually,
but instagram it's really easy.
We didn't.
They didn't really.
Facebook isn't so popular withthe younger generations, but it
was really popular on Instagram.
Jerry Allhands (15:26):
All right.
So, talking about the websiteearlier, is there a web address
that we can go to now?
Camille Bullock (15:33):
There is, it is alamagnoliagirlstatecom.
Jerry Allhands (15:39):
Okay, alamagnoliacom.
Camille Bullock (15:45):
Girlstate, girlstatecom.
Angela Kilcrease (15:48):
It's long.
Jerry Allhands (15:49):
It is long, yeah , okay, not worthy, got to pull
in close Okay.
Camille Bullock (15:54):
There's a lot of states out there.
Jerry Allhands (15:56):
It is Okay.
A-l-a MagnoliaGirlstatecom.
Camille Bullock (15:59):
Yes, sir.
Jerry Allhands (16:00):
All right, so we're in the beginning process
here.
This is, let's say, January,February 2025.
Girls State starts when.
Camille Bullock (16:09):
June 8th.
June 8th.
Angela Kilcrease (16:12):
Through the 13th.
Abby Burris (16:13):
Through the 13th at the University of Mississippi,
ole.
Camille Bullock (16:17):
Miss Hotty toddy.
Abby Burris (16:18):
Hotty toddy.
Jerry Allhands (16:21):
And for how do we go about applying for
Magnolia Girls State?
Angela Kilcrease (16:27):
Well, this year we're doing an online
registration.
Abby has worked on setting upthe forms and we're doing jot
forms and things like that.
She keeps throwing these termsat me and I'm learning, but she
has created an online form sothey go in, where they're given
the information we gave it tothe units today through scanning
(16:50):
barcodes of how to get to it.
They go in, they fill it outand they send it in and that way
it's their typing.
It was very hard to read theirhandwriting a lot of times when
we had paper, and now they typeit in, we can read it and then
it'll automatically, whenthey're accepted, it goes into
an Excel spreadsheet, which wespent many, many hours trying to
(17:15):
hand-type this stuff into anExcel spreadsheet.
So she is modernizing us andshe's cutting down on the
workforce so we can do somethingelse for Girls' Tape.
Jerry Allhands (17:24):
Okay.
Angela Kilcrease (17:25):
So it's a it's .
It's a magical little thing Ilove it.
Abby Burris (17:29):
So if you were a delegate and you wanted to
register today, you werelistening to this and you were
like, hey, I want to go registerfor girls state so inspired, go
to our website.
There's a big button up at thetop that says register.
Pretty sure that's what it'sdelegate registration delegate
registration.
I'll go there and it tells youstep by step of how to do it.
There's a packet on there withthe unit sponsorship form.
(17:50):
So if you want to get sponsoredby a unit, there's a form on
there to take to your counselorthat has your principal, that
you need to get signed off on.
So it's your weighted gpa,unweighted GPA, act score.
All of that would be needed.
There's also an essay questionon there.
I think that's about it.
(18:10):
I mean it's a pretty in-depthapplication.
It asks you if you're adescendant of a veteran or if a
family member is in the Legionfamily organization.
So it's a long application.
I did it this morning just as asample.
It probably took me 10 minutes,but again I did not answer the
essay question.
(18:30):
But during the applicationprocess if a girl just goes, I
can't handle this anymorethere's a save button at the
bottom sends it to your emailand so after you click that save
button and go back, there it isyou can pick up from where you
left off.
Jerry Allhands (18:44):
You can pick up from there.
Don't have to do it all at onetime.
Don't have to do it all at onetime.
Take a break, go get a soda.
Abby Burris (18:50):
Take a break.
Jerry Allhands (18:51):
Beautiful the qualifications.
Again you were saying goodmoral character, good grades.
Angela Kilcrease (19:00):
Well, yeah, and I think when we do the
application because we ask themyou know, what are your hobbies,
what do you like doing, whathave you accomplished in school?
We ask them these kind ofthings and that gets an idea of
who this girl is.
But this information goes backto their sponsoring unit and the
(19:21):
unit this is their job to callthrough and accept these girls.
So it's very important thatthey get all the information
they can about them and thenthey may ask these girls to come
in and visit the unit.
They speak to them.
It's always been.
A big part of it is to bringingtheir sponsored girls into the
(19:42):
unit, into the post home andpresenting them to everyone.
So it gives them a littleimportance.
But it also tells the girlsthis is who your sponsor is,
this is who's supporting you,this is who's putting this
program on.
A lot of them don't know aboutthe Legion, but anyway, a lot of
(20:04):
the information on theapplication is for the units to
get to learn these girls beforethey shell out the $275 to pay
for it.
Jerry Allhands (20:09):
Answering my questions before I'm asking them
.
I like it.
You said sponsoring unit.
What does that mean?
What does that entail?
Angela Kilcrease (20:17):
All the units in the auxiliary in the state of
Mississippi and every statedoes this.
But it's a grassroots thingbecause each unit is asked to
participate in the Girls Stateprogram.
So they have directors and theyhave assistant directors and a
board and a committee.
But it's actually for a longtime it was.
It's kind of getting away fromit a little bit, but the units
(20:41):
make the decisions.
They say these are the girls wewant to sponsor, these are the
ones we're going to pay for,these are the ones that go
through.
Now, honestly, I've never seenanybody get turned down to go to
Girls' State.
Everybody gets a shot as longas they can find the sponsorship
money.
But the sponsorship moneydoesn't have to come from the
unit.
They can go out and getcorporate sponsors, they can go
(21:05):
and get civic sponsors, parentscan pay for their registration,
so but the units, that's theirs,they they're sending it to the
department and saying this iswho we're sending and they get
credit for that, for that manygirls that they're sending, and
that works their program fromthe local end, which is where we
need it.
Our units are tasked with goingto the schools.
(21:28):
They're our first foot into theschools to find these girls.
They go to the counselors, theygive them the form and they say
we're starting up, we're readyto go, we're ready for you to
give us some recommendations,and a lot of the recommendations
for girls comes from thecounselor at the schools.
So that's why it's importantfor our units to become friends
(21:53):
of the schools in their area,right?
Jerry Allhands (21:56):
And you said it was $275?
$275.
And how long are they atNino-Ur-Girl State?
Angela Kilcrease (22:03):
It starts on Sunday afternoon and it runs
until Friday around noon.
Okay, it's on Sunday afternoonand it runs until Friday around
noon.
So it's a long.
It's a longer conference thanour workshop leadership program,
whatever that you want to callit, than anything else I've seen
and I was in continuingeducation for a long time in my
career.
We did these kind of things.
We're there a whole week andthat's kind of unusual for a
(22:30):
youth program, but we get a lotdone how many students do you
anticipate having?
last year they had 170 somethingstudents.
Our goal this year is 200.
Of course I would love to gethigher than that, but 300 is
about a good number for us, forMississippi, because of the
staffing and all that.
Jerry Allhands (22:52):
But we're shooting for 200 this year, and
I'm going to playfully say thisyou could put 200 girls together
in the same room and everythingbe Cobas City.
Angela Kilcrease (22:59):
It's lovely.
Abby Burris (23:00):
It's lovely.
Well, you're adding staff, soyou're talking 250.
Angela Kilcrease (23:04):
Wow, yeah, that's better than you couldn't
do that, but Jerry if youbrought your equipment to our
general session and you come tothe political rally, your
equipment would just be ringingoff the hook.
Wow.
Abby Burris (23:17):
Girl State could break your equipment.
Yes, it would.
Angela Kilcrease (23:20):
But they're so enthusiastic and they're
getting into this campaignprocess and the Federalists are
going against the Nationalistsand it's just a va-va-va-va-va
and it's a whole evening of thisenthusiasm that is unequal
anything else we do.
Jerry Allhands (23:36):
Okay, so now you bring this up Federalists and
Nationalists.
What is Federalists?
Angela Kilcrease (23:39):
Those are the two parties Republicans,
Democrats and the state ofMagnolia has Federalists and
Nationalists.
It's just a name, Just a namejust a name Just a name.
Jerry Allhands (23:48):
It's all in the name.
Yeah, do you assign themFederalists and Nationalists, or
do they get to choose?
Angela Kilcrease (23:56):
No, we assign them their party and when we
register them in we assign themto a city, now a city which we
name our cities after pastdepartment presidents still
living.
Their city has maybe 15 to 20girls, sometimes a little more,
and they have a senior counselor, two junior counselors, that's
(24:19):
their guardian for the week,their moms, and they work as a
city and then they go tocaucuses and work on the state,
county and judicial level, butthe city always remains the same
on their floor of the dormitory.
Each floor of the dormitory isa city.
Jerry Allhands (24:41):
How many cities are we talking about?
Angela Kilcrease (24:43):
I think we're shooting between eight and ten.
Eight, yeah, okay.
Jerry Allhands (24:48):
And you said we're back at Ole Miss again
this year.
Abby Burris (24:50):
Yes, yes.
Jerry Allhands (24:51):
Now, I was there with you last year.
Abby Burris (24:53):
No, no, you were there with me.
I was there with you.
Yes, and Camille.
Jerry Allhands (24:58):
And it was wonderful.
Angela Kilcrease (24:59):
Yes.
Jerry Allhands (24:59):
Beautiful place, Beautiful place.
I was there for Boys State andthen Girls State.
This is the second year ofGirls City.
Last year wasn't it.
Abby Burris (25:04):
This is the third year in 2025.
I enjoy Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands (25:07):
I graduated from there, so it's great going back
Great campus and they treat usso well there.
Abby Burris (25:14):
It's an awesome campus.
I'm very thankful for them.
They treat us so well.
Having the Grove there andbeing able to do events for the
Grove is awesome.
Doing things outside on themost beautiful campus in the
nation I think it actually gotthat just recently has the union
.
That was built about like in2020.
(25:34):
So the campus is nice.
We stay in a great residencehall there Very nice has a
bathroom for every bedroom, sonobody has to share a bathroom
with like multiple people in thehall.
So that's always great,especially when you're getting
up at seven o'clock in themorning and you don't want to
share a bathroom with everybody.
Jerry Allhands (25:55):
I can imagine that, yeah, security is great
there as well.
Abby Burris (25:58):
Security is awesome .
There's really nothing I cancomplain about at Ole Miss.
Jerry Allhands (26:03):
Well, it's Ole Miss.
Abby Burris (26:04):
Well, there's very few things.
I'm not saying that as aMississippi State student, I do
go to Mississippi State now.
Jerry Allhands (26:11):
So how do you play off that being from Ole
Miss and then going toMississippi State?
I mean, really, bobby Cook'sgot to be all over you.
Abby Burris (26:21):
Well, I have an undergraduate degree in
engineering, so I'm getting amaster's degree in industrial
and systems engineering, and OleMiss does not offer that.
Jerry Allhands (26:33):
That's a lot of educational degrees and things
there.
Yeah, man, a student coming toGirl State, magnolia.
Yeah, can I call it Girl Stateor should I call it Magnolia
Girl State?
Angela Kilcrease (26:45):
Magnolia Girl.
State Magnolia Girl.
Jerry Allhands (26:47):
State A student comes there and see how I did
that.
Girls State what can theyexpect to receive at the end of
it?
Is there any kind ofscholarship, any kind of?
Abby Burris (26:58):
There's so many things you can expect.
Such as you have lifelongconnections.
First off, I realize that's notmonetary, that's not anything
physical, but there are stillpeople from Girl State from way
back when that I keep up withall the time, and you just
create a bond with these peopleall through the week they can
expect to receive hands-onlearning.
(27:19):
There's no other program in thestate that you can receive
hands-on learning of thegovernment process.
I mean you're actively voting,you're actively voting for your
governor, things like that.
Uh, I mean there's so many.
You can get involved with ourglee club and ala jesta.
So ala jesta is our yearbook,so at the end of the week we
(27:40):
will have a yearbook that theycan take home with them that
tells them everything that wenton, and so we have a staff of
delegates that put that on.
Uh, we also have a glee clubthat sings the national anthem
and they do a great, they do anawesome job.
There's also is scholarshipopportunities, always for, like,
the top eight, which is yourgovernor on down, uh.
(28:02):
And then there's scholarshipopportunities at the major
universities in the state ofMississippi.
So USM offers a scholarship,ole Miss, of course, and
Mississippi State all offersscholarships to the completed
girls, state delegates.
So at the end of the week theytake that certificate, they can
send it off to their universitywherever they choose to go and
they get a scholarship theirfreshman year.
(28:23):
It does not apply to transferstudents, so just first-year
freshmen.
Jerry Allhands (28:28):
All right, and this information is that listed
on the website where they applyit is listed on the website.
Abby Burris (28:33):
It's also listed on all the financial aid websites
of their university.
Jerry Allhands (28:37):
See, I get a little greedy about this because
my granddaughter's in thisstage group this year let's
definitely sign her up, Boy.
Abby Burris (28:45):
I'm trying Sign her up today I am so trying.
Jerry Allhands (28:47):
She's in Arkansas.
How would that work?
You know she lives in Arkansas.
Abby Burris (28:50):
She can come here.
Angela Kilcrease (28:51):
Can she come here?
Abby Burris (28:53):
We can make an exception.
Angela Kilcrease (28:54):
Yes, especially since you're a Legion
member here.
Jerry Allhands (28:57):
Okay, that's nice to know.
Angela Kilcrease (28:59):
Yes.
Jerry Allhands (28:59):
Are the Legionnaires out there?
Angela Kilcrease (29:02):
We have had a lot of girls come across the
state lines because theirgrandparents or parents are
members here, legion orAuxiliary in Mississippi.
So they come here.
They get sponsored here.
We sponsored one out of my unityears ago that was out of state
, she lived in Louisiana but hergrandparents were members of
(29:22):
our post.
Jerry Allhands (29:23):
She's looking hard at Mississippi State.
She wants to be a veterinarian.
Abby Burris (29:26):
Perfect for that.
Very good, me and Camille coulddefinitely take her on a tour.
Jerry Allhands (29:27):
Oh, there you go , host, she's looking hard at
mississippi state she wants tobe a veterinarian, so perfect,
very good, me and camille coulddefinitely take her on a tour,
oh there you go but you know,one of we talk about those
things.
Angela Kilcrease (29:35):
One of the greatest things that they get
out of this, and what's just forauxiliary members and us trying
to put this program on forthese young ladies, is what they
take away inside.
They come in and you can.
I've had so many mothers andthe girls themselves would say
(29:56):
she's changed when she leftthere.
She has changed, she's come outof her shell.
She knows that she'saccomplished something.
She knows that she'saccomplished something.
We've given her something to beproud of in herself.
We empower her and there's alot of girls that come that are
not overly exuberant orconfident.
(30:19):
They're all kinds and when youcan get one and take them by the
hand and show them, yes, dothis.
And then all this and you watchthem blossom and bloom all week
long and it's an incrediblefeeling and, like you have a
mother call, she says what didyou do with my daughter?
This is not the same girl thatwe had sent to you.
(30:41):
That's worth it, everythingthat we do for this program,
when, when, a girl goes toMagnolia girls day.
Jerry Allhands (30:52):
Uh, address books.
Do we still do address booksguys?
Abby Burris (30:56):
What is it?
Angela Kilcrease (30:57):
That's our allergist and they it's.
It's their little year book andthey get that.
Last night, on Thursday night,they get their allergist is and
they get to pass it around andlet people sign.
They're bonding and especiallyin their cities, the city.
They were there together allweek doing different projects
together.
(31:17):
They bonded.
But if they've been running fortop eight or something else,
those girls bond too.
So it's a lot of bonding.
Jerry Allhands (31:27):
My wife is an alumni of girls state.
I'm not sure it was magnoliagirls state back oh, it's always
been magnolia yeah, we're notgoing to say how many decades
ago that was, because my couchisn't that big.
My son is a graduate of boystate.
Had plans for my grandson to goto boy state, but baseball camp
was the same week, so know howthat works.
(31:48):
So there you go.
So hopefully you'll be seeingmy granddaughter this summer.
Abby Burris (31:52):
We compete with dance camps, so don't let dance
camp.
Camille Bullock (31:55):
Get in the way of girls' day.
Jerry Allhands (31:58):
That's a good point.
That is a good point becausethere's so much going on.
This is like the week afterMemorial Day, right?
Abby Burris (32:03):
Because Boys State is Memorial Day week, y'all are
the week immediately after itskips a week.
Jerry Allhands (32:12):
So what are the things that could potentially
get in the way of a young ladygetting to go to Girls State?
Abby Burris (32:18):
Her schedule.
Angela Kilcrease (32:19):
All the sports camp, we competed against a lot
of activities to come to GirlsState.
It's always been that way.
Because the summer hits, thekids are going in different
directions.
Yes, so we tried to do oursearlier in the summer because of
(32:39):
certain things that camefurther along down the line and
it seems to have been a nichefor us that we've created and so
we've not had too much.
But you're always going to havecompetition Always.
Abby Burris (32:52):
It could also be particularly hard because I know
schools on the coast have movedto like year-round schools and
so like they only have so manyweeks that are off and so mom
and daddy could go hey, get inthe car, we're going to the
beach while you're off, not, hey, you're going to Girl State.
So there's a lot of competitionthere also and I know like
(33:12):
there's other leadership campsLast year people couldn't come
to Girl State because it endedon Saturday and there's a
leadership camp that goes to DCthat I was involved in way back
when and some girls were notable to come to Girl State
because they were leaving to goto DC on that leadership camp.
Angela Kilcrease (33:27):
And see, we had run in that before where you
know.
That's why we did not end onSaturday.
It's because they were havingto go to the next one.
Abby Burris (33:37):
Yeah.
Angela Kilcrease (33:37):
I mean some of these girls.
They're booked every weekduring the summer.
Jerry Allhands (33:41):
Yeah, I'm running into that already.
Angela Kilcrease (33:44):
Yeah, and so they're run ragged because we've
had girls packed.
When they leave Girls State,they have their luggage to go to
the next one and they're goingdirectly to an airport, or
they're going directly to thenext event.
Abby Burris (33:57):
I know when I went to Girls State back when.
So I left Girls State on Friday, I packed my bag to go to DC
and then I left that morning at5 o'clock and went to DC.
Wow to go to DC.
And then I left that morning atfive o'clock and went to DC Wow
.
So the week, the that betweenyour junior and senior year is a
busy time because there's somany leadership camps that want
to prepare you for college outthere and you could also like
(34:20):
want to go tour a school.
Say, I want to go tour USMduring the summer.
There's also that time whileI'm not in school, especially
with like these AP and dualcredit courses.
They don't allow you time offfrom school to go visit schools,
so you compete for that, wowyeah.
Jerry Allhands (34:39):
So, as we're getting close to wrapping this
interview up, tell me the steps.
What should a parent and adelegate potentially delegate be
starting from right now?
Today and we just talked abouta schedule we're three months,
four or five months out.
You know where do we start.
What do we do.
Angela Kilcrease (34:58):
We start by going on and get the application
.
That's the first thing.
Abby Burris (35:01):
I think they need to go to the website and just
look around and see what factswe have on there first and see
if they would be even interestedin the application process.
Angela Kilcrease (35:10):
If we fit in their schedule.
Abby Burris (35:11):
If we fit in their schedule, of course, that's a
big thing.
Angela Kilcrease (35:14):
And then they fill out the application, then
they go find a sponsoring unitwhich we're going to provide
them this information of who isnear them that they could go and
ask to sponsor we're going todo that of who is near them that
they could go and ask tosponsor.
We're going to do that.
Or they can go and find theirown sponsorship through a civic
(35:34):
organization in their town ortheir church or bottom line
their parents could pay it ifthey wanted to do that.
But they still need to havesome kind of a unit to sign off
on their application, thatthey've seen the applications.
But that just keeps the unitinvolved in this program and
working it.
That's important.
Jerry Allhands (35:54):
Website applications.
Sponsoring unit.
How much?
$275.
$275 to go.
I'm sending my granddaughter togo.
How much should I give her tohave for spending money?
Angela Kilcrease (36:07):
You don't need very much.
Abby Burris (36:09):
They don't really have time $50 to $100, maybe
Because we plan on having likemerchandise.
Actually Camille is working onthis for us right now.
We're going to have merchandiselike sweatshirts, tote bags,
cups, things like that for themto buy at Girls State, and they
could also maybe want to buy acouple snacks, like out of the
(36:30):
vending machine.
But again we'll have socials.
Angela Kilcrease (36:32):
But they can bring their own snacks to the
room.
Abby Burris (36:33):
They can bring their own snacks and I promise
you, like the 15 girls that aregoing to run for governor,
they're all going to bringsnacks and they're all going to
be your new best friend, because, again, at the end of the day,
because again at the end of theday, there can only be two
governor's candidates andthey're going to have like a
million snacks because they didnot get governor.
Because, again, 15 down to two,you're bound to have one on
(36:53):
your floor.
Jerry Allhands (36:57):
They're all going to bring you their snacks
from their losing campaign orwhatever.
Okay Now, campaigns just likerunning for political office.
You've got to have the money torun for office Somebody's at
home and they're thinkingthey're going to run for
governor.
Should they start raising fundsmoney to actually run for
governor?
Abby Burris (37:16):
No, it shouldn't cost you that much.
Maybe it costs you $50.
Angela Kilcrease (37:20):
One of our stipulations is you have to make
your own campaign materials.
We don't want, because itequals out the playing ground.
We don't want somebody to go toKinko's and print up all this
fancy stuff.
But you have other girls whocan't do that, so they have to
create their own campaign signsand their own campaign ideas.
Jerry Allhands (37:41):
So these are things they do while they're on
campus, or do they bring it from?
Abby Burris (37:44):
home.
Angela Kilcrease (37:45):
They bring it with them.
They can do it before I know agirl and that's the best way to
do it, to be prepared, andthat's what we tell them in
their orientations that we givethem prior to coming to Girl
State.
Jerry Allhands (37:56):
So a month before you come to Girl State,
you've already made up your mindI'm going to run for governor.
Abby Burris (38:00):
No I mean they can decide the day of I want to run
for governor.
Angela Kilcrease (38:05):
I know a girl that-, but they won't be
prepared like other girls will.
No, yeah.
Abby Burris (38:09):
I know a girl last year that ran for governor.
She made friendship braceletsand gave them out to campaign.
But of course, like she didn'tget that far, so she just gave
them out to everybody and itsaid like A-L-A-M-G-S on it.
Jerry Allhands (38:21):
It was really cool.
Camille Bullock (38:23):
doesn't fit, but I have it yeah, she gave it
like to everybody yeah they doget really creative and really
crafty, though like you can'teven imagine some of the things
the girls come up with.
Like I have probably six ofthose little honey sticks
sitting in my on a pencil cup inmy office and I thought it was
the most creative thing.
I don't know if that girl won,but it was so cute and creative.
(38:43):
So if you're thinking aboutcampaigning, really, really,
think about it.
There's lots of accounts thatI've been tagged in.
Girls were thinking aboutcampaigning for governor almost
like half a month before Istarted getting tagged in lots
and lots of accounts and it'sjust not the governor.
Angela Kilcrease (39:01):
I have seen girls come.
They're running forcommissioner of agriculture and
she came dressed as a cow.
She wore a cow outfit all weeklong and they and all week long
well with her t-shirt, with hert-shirt and then we had to be
able to see it though pleasedon't.
(39:22):
You have to wear your t-shirtbut she, but they farmers have
come through.
We've had them in wagons, um.
We have one lady.
I remember her governor.
She was from laurel and she umhad a hannah banana because her
last name was, her name washannah, so she called herself
hannah banana and she had thisbig hat, a fruit banana with
(39:45):
mostly bananas and she ran onthat.
It was the cutest thing she wonthat year.
It was so creative.
Every year we were amazed ofwhat they can come with and
present to their.
Creativity is really remarkable.
Jerry Allhands (40:02):
I just flashed back on Chiquita Banana.
I'm sorry.
It's going to be in my head forthe rest of the night.
Angela Kilcrease (40:07):
I'll never forget Hannah Banana.
I'm sorry, it's going to be inmy head for the rest of the
night.
I know I'll never forget HannahBanana and if she ever hears
this podcast I hope she'll ringout.
But they come and it's amazing,and some of them make these
huge banners.
We couldn't even put them up,but you know we don't really
limit them or tell them what todo.
It's just using their owncreativity for this and what the
(40:31):
university allow us to do.
Abby Burris (40:32):
I think we did have to limit on how big the banners
could be last year because,like Ole Miss, like can't handle
like big banners all over theplace.
So definitely like there mightbe some stipulations on that,
but like not right now.
Camille Bullock (40:46):
Yeah, there might be some stipulations on
that, but not right now.
Yeah, within fire safetyprecautions, yeah definitely
don't like.
Abby Burris (40:52):
we had a problem with tying things up to exit
signs, so we definitely can't dothat.
Angela Kilcrease (40:59):
We definitely can't do fire hazards In
Southern Miss they didn't liketape on the glass and they would
also put tape.
I always told them, bluepainter's tape, blue for the
plow, for the plaster on thewall, on the big columns and all
that.
They take the paint off.
Abby Burris (41:15):
But we've had that something that's so much cheaper
than posters is get likestickers or like buttons that
everybody can wear, becauseeverybody loves wearing stickers
and buttons.
Or like make your own with likesafety pins and little Post-it
notes.
One of my favorite girls fromlast year it was literally a
safety pin hot glued with somelike poster stickers with her
(41:36):
name on it.
And see, that's creative.
Sure, yeah, that's creative.
Angela Kilcrease (41:40):
But the girls also get other benefits to
prepare them for college andhelping them decide their senior
year is very important.
To prepare them for college andhelping them decide their
senior year is very important.
So we have a college day whereall the universities and
community colleges, a lot ofROTC they come and they do a
(42:01):
show for them and the ladies getto go in and go to each booth
and hear what they've got, pickup materials for schools and
that's been a very successfulprogram that we have in here
forever, ever, ever and do youalready have a day planned out,
that's on wednesday, on?
wednesday it's on wednesdayafternoon of girls state it was
thursday thursday is breakoutsessions oh yeah, that's right
(42:25):
that's, and on thursday,breakout session is, you know,
all the mayors get in the roomand all the supervisors get in
the room the county officialsand we actually bring in local
cities around us.
We bring in their officials tocome speak to the girls and say
this is my job.
This is what I do as analderman.
This is what I do as asupervisor.
(42:46):
This is what I do as a taxcollector.
You know, we bring them all inand we have those breakout
sessions according to what theywere elected to.
Jerry Allhands (42:56):
Do you still plan on having for the boys' day
?
It's called Legion Day, familyDay.
Angela Kilcrease (43:00):
We had that on Thursday night Legion, night
Legion and auxiliary night yes,Now I know the food is really
good there, Really good.
What did you eat in thecafeteria or no?
Jerry Allhands (43:11):
Both the cafeteria was great Okay.
Angela Kilcrease (43:15):
Because you're going to be in the cafeteria
this year.
Jerry Allhands (43:17):
Raspberry ice cream last year.
Bobby Cook, who was ourdepartment chaplain at the time.
Who's now our alternate NEC?
Let's just say that he and Iarm-wrestled over the last
little bit of raspberry icecream, and that little scandal
won you can mess with a chaplain.
Abby Burris (43:32):
They had some hottie-tottie red ice cream and
blue ice cream last year andevery girl's face after dinner
was like red and blue from thehottie-tottie red and blue ice
cream.
Jerry Allhands (43:43):
Oh, I like that, so we're calling it Legion,
it's called Legion Night.
Abby Burris (43:48):
Legion Night Auxiliary and Legion Night,
don't we include both?
Angela Kilcrease (43:51):
of them.
Well, we do, but it's alwaysbeen named Legion Night, but we
bring our officers from theLegion and the department
officers from the Legion and theAuxiliary.
We bring the past departmentpresidents that the cities are
named for who can still travel.
Abby Burris (44:10):
We invite, we invite any auxiliary member or
legion member to come and justsee what Girl State's about well
as a past department commander.
Jerry Allhands (44:21):
It's an honor to be there.
I've enjoyed it.
I hope you'll let me come backagain we enjoy having you we
have a great time.
Let me let me get ready to wrapup for you here, and and and
ask if, if I may, points ofcontact.
How can we reach you other thanthe website?
Can we call?
Do we just go through ourauxiliary units or no, you can
call us.
Angela Kilcrease (44:41):
We have, or email us my, as the director I
have.
My email address is AngelaKilcrease
A-N-G-E-L-A-K-I-L-C-R-E-A-S-E atbellsouth, b-e-l-s-o-u-t-h dot
net.
Now you can tell that I haveone of the oldest emails of AT&T
(45:04):
.
Jerry Allhands (45:04):
Bell.
Angela Kilcrease (45:04):
South, yes, bell South.
Abby Burris (45:07):
Also Girl State has an email.
It's also on the website.
It's magnoliagirlstate atgmailcom.
That comes to me and Camilleand me and Camille are just kind
of sifting through those asthey come in.
That's general questions thatyou might have, like when does
applications come out, thingslike that.
So definitely they come throughthere.
(45:28):
All your forms come throughthere.
Form questions can be directedto there so I can answer them
for whomever.
Jerry Allhands (45:36):
And everything is on the website up and ready
to go Website's up and have atit.
Angela Kilcrease (45:41):
And Camille's going to be tweaking it and
making it better, better, everyday that she gets a chance in
between class.
Jerry Allhands (45:47):
You did say tweaking and not twerking, right
?
No, she's tweaking, I was justrecently educated that there is
a difference between tweakingand twerking.
Abby Burris (45:55):
Yeah, there's a difference.
There's definitely a difference.
Jerry Allhands (45:58):
She's turning bright red.
Angela Kilcrease (46:00):
We don't want to do twerking we definitely
don't.
Abby Burris (46:03):
We definitely don't , it was one of those.
Jerry Allhands (46:05):
Papa, do you realize what word you just used?
Angela Kilcrease (46:07):
No, twerking is not a Girl State thing.
Abby Burris (46:10):
I'm sorry we don't do that at Girl State, not even
in the context.
Jerry Allhands (46:14):
I was using it Right.
It was so embarrassing, it waswonderful.
Anything that you would like toshare with us before we wrap up
today.
Angela Kilcrease (46:21):
Anything, send us your best and your brightest
.
Abby Burris (46:25):
We're looking for the state's future leaders.
We're looking for people thatcan go on and be state senators
teachers, lawyers, doctors,things like that.
Angela Kilcrease (46:32):
that will affect anybody, basically, and
we're still looking for ourfirst president of Girls Nation.
We are still looking forsomeone who's going to go on and
be president of the UnitedStates.
We had one of our juniormembers here this morning who
sat in our session and I we said, is there a future president
here?
And this one girl popped up yes, she was president.
(46:55):
Columbus, mississippi.
Abby Burris (46:56):
She's from the Columbus Post and she popped up
to me a pate, I think it'sTeresa.
Star.
Her name was her name Star,because I was like that's catchy
yeah, but she, I mean shepopped right up.
Angela Kilcrease (47:09):
She was going to be the next president, a
female president for the unitedstates.
I said go get at it I said butcome to girl state first girl
states first, just a reminder itis not always a girl who's
involved.
Camille Bullock (47:22):
It's not always a girl with the gpa.
I was never picked for theleadership programs and I'm
sitting here today.
I never thought I would be here.
I didn't want to go to GirlsState, but I love it now.
So even if you think you'llhate it, try it out.
But if you think you'll love it, definitely try it out.
Jerry Allhands (47:39):
Thank you.
Yeah, that was something thatsomebody brought up to me
recently was they had no ideawhat Girls State was about, what
to expect?
Yeah, a long time ago.
Angela Kilcrease (47:47):
We hear that all the time.
Jerry Allhands (47:48):
You know, did not go prepared.
How do we get the excuse me forusing this?
How do we get the wallflower,the quiet one in the corner, to
get involved?
Abby Burris (47:58):
I think that's where the school counselors of
the units come in.
They go and find these people.
Angela Kilcrease (48:03):
Hey, I go to church with her and she looks
like she would take advantage ofgoing to Girl State and my
biggest advice to them is, ifthey're accepted to Girl State
and they're coming, is to attendone of these mandatory on face
to face orientation sessionsthat we give.
We go over everything and talkthem through all the processes,
(48:26):
what to to expect, what to bringand how it's going to be.
And we do these across thestate, in the district areas.
We combine some, but thosecoming to those orientations is
really important for you to beprepared to come to Girls State
and be successful.
Jerry Allhands (48:44):
So it's up to us to make sure that the auxiliary
units are getting the words outabout those orientation
meetings, those videos that'sgoing to be on, it's going to be
on the website.
Angela Kilcrease (48:54):
They will be instructed they will receive
once they are accepted to girlsstate.
They will get this informationand the list of the dates and
then where, the places and ofwhen to come to orientation.
Even if they can't come to theone, if there's a date conflict
in their area they can pickanother one in the state.
We're going to do five to sixof them across the state.
Abby Burris (49:16):
We're hoping to also do a remote one so we can
talk with them live about what'sgoing on, and it's not a
recorded something that I haveto watch before I come, because
there's so much dialect that youget by just talking with
somebody one-on-one, more thanjust a recorded video.
Angela Kilcrease (49:33):
They get to ask questions and the important
part of that those on-site istheir parents come with them.
The parents get to hear it.
They bring grandparents withthem.
I mean the ones that I've donein the past, most of the ones.
They're packed houses.
I have a packed house and theyget to come to a Legion post.
(49:54):
Many people have not beeninside a Legion post.
Now we're bringing these folksinside to see what we're about,
who we are.
They see the walls and that'sanother important aspect of
these on-site orientations.
Abby Burris (50:07):
Because I personally can say I knew
nothing about the Legion, theAuxiliary, anything like that,
before Girl State and look, I'mnow a part of the Auxiliary.
I was able to join theAuxiliary, so Girl State is a
great way to be able to put thatfoot in the door, of know what
the Legion, the Auxiliary is,things like that.
Jerry Allhands (50:25):
This is great and to be a part.
Angela Kilcrease (50:27):
Yeah, look what we got.
Jerry Allhands (50:29):
Beautiful.
Angela Kilcrease (50:30):
With these young ladies.
Jerry Allhands (50:31):
Thank you all so much for being here with me
today.
Angela Kilcrease (50:32):
Thank you, Jerry, thank you, Jerry, thank
you.
"I love girls state.
Jerry Allhands (50:38):
"I love girls state and that was our visit
with the leadership of the 2025Magnolia Girls State Program.
Be sure to join us next Mondaymorning as we visit with another
member of the American Legionfamily.
A very special thank you toJonathan Michael Fleming for his
(50:59):
musical talents.
You can find his CDs and videoson Spotify, amazon Music and
YouTube.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode and look forward to your
feedback, and ask that yousubscribe to and share the
Veterans Sound Off podcast withyour friends and family.
If you have a comment,suggestion or question, or you
would like to become a supporterof this podcast, please send an
email to JDAllHands atOutlookcom that's
(51:23):
J-D-A-L-L-H-A-N-D-S atOutlookcom, or by calling us at
662-902-6658, and we'll get backto you as soon as possible.
This has been a production ofAll Hands Media LLC, with
offices in Renalar Mississippi.
All rights reserved.
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