Politics & Government

Girl Scout Troop Gets First Hand Look at How Government Works

As part of earning their "Inside Government badge," fourth grade Girl Scout Troop 1106 from Simpson Elementary School toured City Hall, met with Mayor and City Staff, sat in on City Council meeting to earn badge.

By Jennifer Bonacci

Girl Scout Troop 1106 has been working on earning one of their Junior level badges, Inside Government, for the last few months. 

This fourth grade Junior troop from Simpson Elementary has learned quite a bit about their local election process as well as their local government.    

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In November, they met with John Vail, who is in charge of the polling location at Peachtree Corners Baptist Church. Mr. Vail took the girls on a tour of the polling site the night before the General Election.

The girls were able to walk through all of the stations to understand each step in the process. They were very interested in the process and Mr. Vail was impressed with the questions they asked and their high level of interest in the subject. While they were not allowed to actually see the ballots on the computers, they were excited to walk through all of the other steps in the process.    

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On Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013, in order to earn another piece of their badge, they met with Mayor Mike Mason and toured Peachtree Corners City Hall. Along with the Mayor, they were introduced to the City Manager, the City Clerk, as well as, most of the City Council members. 

Some of the girls brought questions to ask the Mayor about items that were of interest to them.  Mayor Mason explained the various districts and showed the girls the district map of our Peachtree Corners area. He also answered questions about his duties as Mayor and how much time he spends working on items for the City. The girls stayed on for part of the City Council meeting as well so they could witness exactly how a City Council meeting is run.

The girls have worked hard earning this badge. With all of the activities they have participated in, they definitely earned much more than the badge actually required of them. Hopefully, a general interest and curiousity in their local government and election process has been created that they will carry with them until they are able to get to the polls themselves and become part of the process.


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