Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Four attend Girls State

Girls State was a success for the four girls from Gurdon who attended.

Rayanne Ross, Lyndi Escalante, Katrina Simpson and Whitney Smith learned a lot about how the city, state and national governments are ran.

The girls were divided into different groups upon arrival.

Each group becomes a town. They pick a name for their city and a name for the county they are in. Then the girls must elect officials for each.

Ross was in a nationalist group and was from Gunner City and Northcut County.

She was appointed secretary for the mayor in which she had to take the mayor's notes and assist during all town meetings. Ross said it was a good experience for her.

Ross was also elected to Justice of the Peace for her county. Ross said she did have certain duties to fulfill but they were not big ones.

Katrina Simpson was also in a nationalist group and Fulbright City and Overton County.

She was elected as coroner for her county. She said this was an easy job as she was not put in the position to fulfill her duties.

However, the big news for Simpson was her being appointed as an election judge.

There were only 10 election judges for each county. These election judges were the only people allowed to vote. This meant cooperation within the county.

Lyndi Escalante was a federalists and was also an election judge for her county of Kuykendall. She was from the city of Bradshaw.

Escalante also served as treasurer of her city and was elected to serve as judiciary judge.

Escalante said she also had to assist the mayor during meeting as a treasurer for the city. She also had to prepare reports.

Whitney Smith was a Federalists from Huckabee City and Rockefeller County.

Smith's county duties were being a judiciary judge and learning how to fulfill her job duties.

However, Smith's biggest accomplishment was becoming a state representative. This meant Smith was involved in all decision making and gave her the upper hand on what was happening. She got to assist in making new bills and voting on them.

The girls were pleased and surprised to see Gurdon Superintendent Bobby Smithson visiting Girls State.

The girls got to meet Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Wynne Rockefeller and many other state officials.

The girls said Girls State is a prestigious organization with rules and regulations.

The girls were given hats in the beginning and were not allowed to take them off until the night of inauguration. The girls were also not allowed to visit with boys while at Girls State and were reminded of this daily.

Since the girls were separated upon arrival they were smart and brought along walkie talkies. The girls used their walkie talkies to find each other at lunch time and tell each other good night.