Matthew Warren Enjoys Experience at Boys State

DAYTON - Two Touchet Valley teens quite literally "brought it home" this month. Waitsburg's Emma Philbrook attended Evergreen Girls State while Dayton's Matthew Warren attended Evergreen Boys State - and each walked away with the state Samsung Legion Scholarship.

High school juniors who are a direct descendent of a U.S. veteran who served during a period of war and are delegates to either American Legion Boys State or American Legion Auxiliary Girls State programs are eligible to apply for the scholarship. Boys and Girls State attendees are already considered the "cream of the crop," so competition is stiff. Warren and Philbrook estimated that about 180 kids attended each event, with 40% - 50% applying for the one $1,100 state award. Philbrook and Warren are now in the running for two of nine $20,000 scholarships to be selected from the 98 state winners.

Last week, The Times reported on Philbrook's experience at Girls State. This week Matthew Warren shared about his time at Boys State, which took place June 15-21 at the Warm Beach Conference Center in Stanwood, Wash.

The goals and objectives of the program are to develop civic leadership and pride in young people while arousing an interest in the study of government. The program also seeks to develop an understanding of American traditions and stresses the importance of individual commitment and involvement in government.

Warren said the program was "incredibly well organized and obviously very well thought out." He also said he would absolutely recommend it to others, as long as they were ready for long days. A typical day had him rising at 6 a.m. and falling in to bed at 11 p.m. with only 45 minutes of downtime between. Sunday through Thursday were spent learning about government and the end of the week was devoted to putting that knowledge to work in a variety of mock governmentrelated activities.

Early on, attendees were divided into either the Rainier or Adams party and each party developed their own set values. "The process was kind of cool," said Warren. "We elected executives who began a discussion at the city level. Then that moved to the county level to decide which ones would go through. The ones that made it through the county level were presented to the whole party to vote on. Only about 10% of the ideas made it onto the platform." Warren said the ideas ranged from the serious to ridiculous -- "everything from pro education reform to pro Otter Pops."

Warren said what he found most interesting was that both parties ended up being very similar. "For lack of a better term, I'd say they were both pretty liberal. There weren't that many disagreements."

Warren said he ran for several mock positions including mayor and city commissioner but ended up winning a spot as state senator, which is where he served his term. He spent the bulk of his time passing bills - silly or not. "We were just supposed to think about how our party would vote," he said.

Warren said one of the biggest lessons he walked away with was a new understanding of the many steps a bill goes through before becoming a law. "You grow up watching Schoolhouse Rock and get the impression it only takes five minutes to pass a bill. That's not the case," he said.

Warren learned the importance of city, county and state government cooperation. He was assigned to a city with severe budgeting issues. However, their county received a $30 million grant which aided the city in solving its problem.

He also got to experience being on the unpopular end of a vote. In another mock situation, the city and county had spent many hours coming up with a solution to a problem. "They thought they had solved the problem - the only thing was that it hinged on a 15% across-the-board tax hike," said Warren." It passed the House but got a reality check in the Senate where we knew it wouldn't fly, much to the dismay of the city and county, who had come up with a solution only to have us click 'delete'. As a result, we walked out of the building to a very real mob of 40 - 50 people who were really angry at the senators. I don't think they understood exactly what they were trying to pass - there was a lot of miscommunication."

Warren said he met a lot of interesting people that he wouldn't have met otherwise and that the practice of government skills is important for anyone who ever hopes to run for office. At this point, he doesn't see himself becoming involved in local government, but says the week was an excellent experience. "You can't say you don't like it unless you try it," he said.

Warren is currently resting up during a family vacation to Belize before he leaves for Aerospace Camp in July.