SEARCY -- Harding University's Bob Reely presented Arkansas Girls State Director Charlotte Ann Wilson a small Bison statuette Wednesday night at the Benson Auditorium. It commemorated a relationship between Arkansas Girls State and the university that has lasted 25 consecutive years.
"They come here for a week, and we're Harding friendly to them," said Reely, associate executive director of the university's American Studies Institute. "They're part of the family."
Arkansas Girls State, which held its 73rd session last week, is run by the American Legion Auxiliary Department of Arkansas with the purpose of giving high school students "citizenship training" and "a love of God and Country," according to the department's website.
"We're all friends now," Reely said. "Their mission of serving our country a sense of patriotism and a sense of how our political system operates is very congruent with American Studies."
Reely has been involved in the relationship between Harding and Girls State since it started in 1990. Before that, Girls State had been held at multiple locations in its 73 years, including Camp Robinson and Lake Ouachita.
The event is the largest of its kind in the country now with nearly 1,000 high school juniors attending and using many of Harding's facilities, including dorms, the dining hall and the Benson Auditorium.
"To have 1,000 girls come for a week in Arkansas is really a point of pride for the people," Reely said.
State Desk on 06/07/2015