Boys State: ‘Preserving our democracy’
By Jim Tate
POSTED: June 14, 2008
Southwest Minnesota State University will host the 60th anniversary edition of Boys State on June 15-21.
The event kicks off with a banquet tonight at the American Legion. Over 400 Boys Staters report to campus on Sunday for the week-long series of events.
I had the opportunity a year ago to help with the Boys State daily newspaper, and will do so again this year. It was interesting to see, firsthand, what Boys State is all about.
It’s impressive.
Perhaps no one puts it better into words than Boys State Director Mike Bredeck, who retired just a week ago as a counselor at Lac qui Parle High School.
“We want to preserve our democracy, and we’re doing it one citizen at a time,” he said. “We can’t take all the time; you have to give something back.”
Bredeck’s wife Sue will be working in the Boys State office this year, along with his daughter, Kate, making it a real family effort.
At last count, 408 boys will participate, and that magic 400 number is where Bredeck would like to see participation stay.
“(Reaching that number) involved a lot of work by a lot of people,” he said. “From the local level to the state level, we put together an aggressive recruitment campaign.”
To help keep numbers up, this year’s Boys State participants will be asked their ideas about how to keep participation up in the future. “Our staff will solicit this year’s Boys State members to help with the continued effort of recruitment and the boys will take that under study and see how we can continue to hold that number, and increase it, in the future. They’ll talk about it throughout the week and give a report of their findings on Friday,” he said.
As in the past, participants will be split into one of 14 cities upon arrival. They will have the opportunity to learn, hands-on, about the democratic process, and can participate at the city, county or state levels.
Each city will elect a mayor and council; county commissioners will be elected and delegates to the state convention selected; platform planks will be discussed at the city, county and state levels; state party conventions will be held, with delegates selected for either the Federalist or Nationalist (Boys State political parties) conventions. A ‘state’ Legislature — House and Senate — will be selected.
Candidates from each party for state offices will give short campaign speeches to all Boys State participants on Thursday evening, June 19. A new Boys State governor will be selected by ballot the following morning.
An impressive list of speakers will address the boys during the process, including Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Carol Molnau, former governor Albert Quie; Supreme Court Associate Justice Paul Anderson; House Minority Leader Marty Seifert (R-Marshall); Rep. Lyle Koenen (DFL, Clara City); and Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington), to name just a few.
Bredeck said there is a chance Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be at Boys State, schedule permitting. “We’re still working on that,” he said.
To mark the 60th anniversary, Boys State Athletic Director Bill Zwiener will be honored at the banquet tonight, and again on Friday, June 21. Zwiener has been involved with Boys State as a counselor or staff member for 58 of its 60 years. His father, Chick, founded the Boys State program in Minnesota.
Cy Molitor of Marshall has been busy the past several months doing research on the previous 59 Boys State gatherings. He’s put together an impressive booklet that will be available during Boys State.
Molitor was the Marshall American Legion post commander when SMSU bid to host Boys State for five years and played an instrumental part in brining Boys State to the university.
