2 from Orleans selected for Girls State program

Mallory Kozody, left, and MacKenzie Fiorito will represent Orleans County at the Empire Girls State program.

Two high school juniors in Orleans County have been selected for the Empire Gurls State program from June 30 to July 6 at SUNY Brockport.

Mallory Kozody of Albion and MacKenzie Fiorito of Holley have been picked for the program, which is run by the American Legion Auxiliary. Anna Hess from Lyndonville has been named an alternate.

Classified as an “Action Program,” Empire Girls State focuses on providing students with the opportunity to participate in hands-on workshops highlighting the process of government, running campaigns, writing bills and other political activities.

As part of the program, participants become citizens of a fictional 51st state where they are in charge of building and establishing their own government.

According to the American Legion Auxiliary, the program “endeavors in one week to instruct the young women attending about the privileges of the vote, how political parties are formed and how leaders are chosen and elected to fill the various offices – it serves to instill in them the duties, privileges, rights and responsibilities of the American Citizenship as they actually participate in the process.”