Tailor Talbot, daughter of Ryan and Lisa Talbot, has been named the 2009 delegate to Girls State by the American legion Auxiliary, Unit No. 54 of Moab. She will attend the Girls State session held in Utah on the campus of Southern Utah University in Cedar City, June 1-6.

Talbot has been involved with student government in high school as well as being active in sports, writing for the school newspaper, debate team, National Honor Society, her church, and community service. She has also been to Europe as a People to People Student Ambassador. Talbot said she is looking forward to learning more about American government and how it works during Girls State.

Talbot will join about 350 other Utah girls who are juniors in high school in living together as self-governing citizens with the privileges, rights, and responsibilities of American citizenship.

The American Legion Auxiliary describes Girls State as “a learning experience [that] helps educate young women about their duties as United States citizens and encourage their participation in the democratic process.”

For nearly 70 years the American Legion Auxiliary has sponsored the program, which has since grown from a few hundred participants to nearly 20,000 Girls State delegates annually across the United States.

At Girls State the delegates study local, county, and state governments, and set up their own miniature governments and administer them according to the laws of their particular state. Girls State citizens are divided into two fictional parties, and elections are held to fill the local, county, and state positions. They learn to campaign, debate, and vote.

A variety of area organizations, including the Red Rock 4-Wheelers, the Moab Lions Club, the Ladies of Elks, and Alpha Rho chapter of ESA sorority provide local support for the program each year.