Nicholas Plachta Chosen for American Legion Boys State

Huntington High School will be well represented in this year’s American Legion Boys State program at SUNY Morrisville State College. Junior Nicholas Plachta has been selected to participate in the highly regarded leadership action initiative, which will run from June 28 through July 3.

The Huntington contingent is being sponsored by the Greenlawn Post of the American Legion. Legionnaires Ed O’Shea and Charlie Armstrong recently met with Mr. Plachta and Chairman of Humanities Joseph Leavy.

“Nick passed through a rigorous selection and interview process to finally be chosen to represent Huntington at Boys’ State,” Mr. Leavy said. “The experience looks promising. Nick came highly recommended by social studies teacher Kenneth Donovan.”

Mr. Plachta is one of the top students in Huntington’s Class of 2025. His weighted academic grade average in the first marking period exceeded 105. He also plays on the Blue Devil varsity soccer and tennis teams.

Morrisville State College is located in the picturesque Cherry Valley area of New York State on Route 20, thirty miles east of Syracuse. A gymnasium, tennis courts and athletic fields are also available to participants.

American Legion Boys State is among the most respected and selective educational programs of government instruction for high school students in the United States. “A participatory program in which students become part of the operation of local, county and state government, Boys State was founded in 1935,” according to the organization. “Participants learn the rights, privileges and responsibilities of franchised citizens. The training is objective and centers on the structure of city, county and state governments. Operated by students elected to various offices, Boys State activities include legislative sessions, court proceedings, law-enforcement presentations, assemblies, bands, choruses and recreational programs.”

To be selected for participation, students are required to demonstrate outstanding qualifications in leadership, character, scholarship, service and citizenship along with a serious attitude toward an intensive citizenship training program.

“Boys State is developed from the concept that youth should be offered a better perspective of the practical operation of government; that the individual is responsible for the character and success of their government,” according to the organization.” “As such, it is an activity of high educational value, born of a need for youth training in practical citizenship.”

An objective citizenship training program, Boys State isn’t a summer camp, although there is a recreational component. It is designed for participants to develop a working knowledge of the structure of government and to drive home the point that “their government is just ‘what they make of it.’”

The program’s objectives are:

• To develop civic leadership and pride in American citizenship. It is hoped students will return to their community as a better citizen than when they left and that they will have a desire to demonstrate this fact by their willingness to make civic contributions which will help make the community a better place in which to live.

• To stimulate a keen interest in the detailed study of our government.

• To incite in these young citizens a determination to maintain our form of government.

• To develop in these students a full understanding of American traditions and a belief in the United States of America.