Health & Fitness
Jersey Boys State
The American Legion gives high school boys a glimpse into the political process
In the summer of 2012, my son Christian was one of 972 high school junior boys who attended Jersey Boys State, the American Legion delegation held at Rider University. It’s a civics educational experience that features guest speakers from county, state, and Federal government on the importance of public and community service.
At Jersey Boys State, the boys are broken up into two groups – the Federalists and the Nationalists – and then put into smaller teams to form cities. Their jobs are to build the state from the ground up – first to elect a municipal council for the cities developed by each team, then go forward to build county and state governments with neighboring teams' cities until an entire state is formed. The boys learn about party platforms and campaign strategy. They can run for higher office, such as Governor or US Senator. The one person who’s elected Governor actually gets to meet the sitting NJ state Governor, and the two US Senators get to go to the American Legion delegation in Washington DC and meet the President.
We dropped Christian off at the Neptune American Legion hall the morning of Father’s Day and wished him well before he got on the bus. Now this was the first time that he was going to be away from us for any period of time, and I imagined he would be a little apprehensive about doing this. That, plus the fact that he’d be away from his job at the Promenade Beach Club and not be able to earn any money until he got back was probably weighing on his mind, too.
Lo and behold, I was right. Christian was out of his comfort zone the first day or so he was there. The first night, he got nominated for his city’s council but lost in the council run-off the next day.
As the week wore on, the Christian that we all know and love began to shine through. He was up bright and early every day, and he even did his own laundry.
He didn’t run for any more offices, but that was OK. He voted in every election throughout the rest of the week, and then used his artistic skills to draw a map of the city that he was assigned to as part of its overall master plan. He joined the Jersey Boys State Chorus, which performed at the closing ceremony. And of course, he made friends and developed contacts with both his fellow high school juniors and the student counselors.
At the end of the week, his mother and I drove out to Rider to gather up his things, participate in the graduation ceremony, and take him home. The guest speaker was US Senator Robert Menendez, who gave a brilliant speech about his own experience at Jersey Boys State many years ago, how it helped to shape his future, and how it could shape the future of all those in attendance that year.
Christian later admitted to us that if he had known that the experience was about learning the political process, he probably wouldn’t have done it, but he later admitted that even though he has no political aspirations, he was glad that he went.
(The entire Jersey Shore Retro Blogography can be found at http://longbranch.patch.com/blogs/kevin-cieris-blog. You can also follow Kevin Cieri's blog on his Facebook page, "Jersey Shore Retro" as well as on Twitter @jsretro).
