- April 23, 2024
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No, Dream Harbor isn’t a real place.
It’s the name of Girls Inc.’s mock society, but if you were one of the many suffering from election fatigue, a walk through Dream Harbor may have been just what you needed.
Instead of overtly patriotic red, white and blue color pallet, candidates in Dream Harbor’s mayoral race decorated campaign signs with colorful markers and sparkles. Residents weren’t divided by party platforms. They were excited and inspired by their peers clamoring to be the new leaders of Dream Harbor.
Girls Inc. is a national after school program that works to prepare young girls for the real world. Every girl at Girls Inc. has a job. They work for the Dream Harbor police as peacekeepers. They start their own businesses. Some even run for mayor.
The government is the cornerstone of the Dream Harbor society. Twenty girls coordinate efforts between the town’s police and remind girls about special projects going on in their community.
The town is fake and the name is cute, but Jamie Minton, director of kindergarten through eighth grade initiatives, said she hopes the lessons girls learn by participating in the government are real.
“It’s about really doing the work and giving girls the chance to have their voices heard, and participate of the structure and development of the program as well,” Minton said.
But this election season wasn’t all sparkles and bright colors.
Girls registered to vote and exercised their early voting rights on Nov. 2 by casting ballots for USA's real presidential candidates. Though their ballots weren’t counted in Tuesday’s Election Day totals, the gravity of their vote did not escape the young voters.
“It kind of does mirror the conversations that people are having around the country,” Minton said. “Girls know that whoever is elected president and whoever is elected as their [congressional representative] is going to have an impact on their lives and their families lives.”
While the girls grappled with the implications of the 2016 election, facilitators educated girls as young as kindergarteners about the governmental process during an election unlike any other in resent memory.
Dream Harbor City Hall facilitator Bonnie Kritzmacker teaches civics to the kindergarteners and first-graders. Students learned about secret ballots, women's suffrage and mutual respect.
"The girls have had opinions," Kritzmacker said. "I didn’t say one thing or another, but I did ask them to say one good thing about each presidential candidate. All of them said both candidates love their children."
Despite the recent emphasis on politics, the girls of Girls Inc. are encouraged to think of themselves as trailblazers, regardless of whether their dreams involve seeing their names on a ballot.
“They learn here that there is so much more that goes into being a leader than being a politician and so in everything they do they are encouraged to be leaders,” Minton said.
Tensions were high on Tuesday as Dream Harbor residents flocked to the polls for their mayoral election. They had a big choice on their hands, after all. Voters were tasked with a choice between eight candidates. The winner would be the very first mayor of Dream Harbor.
Although all the candidates ran a campaign to be proud of, only one could claim the title. In the end, it was Dream Harbor resident Shayla who captured the greatest number of votes. She won 42% of the popular vote. She is a seven-year resident of Dream Harbor, but for Shayla Dream Harbor is more than the name of Girl's Inc.'s mock society.
In her final speech of the campaign, Shayla told fellow Dream Harbor residents what the fake town and the real-world building in which it exists mean to her.
"You'll never be alone when Girls Inc. is your second home," she said.
Jennifer ran on a platform of improving girls' performance in school. Although she came 27 votes short of Shayla to win the mayoral race, she did finish with the second most votes out of the eight candidates. Both girls will officially take office after the Dream Harbor swearing in ceremony on Tuesday.
Although she didn't win the race, Jennifer ran a race to be proud of will take what she's learned from the campaign into her role as vice mayor.
"I want to help girls and inspire girls because sometimes girls need a little inspiration," Jennifer said.
Why do you want to be mayor?
Because I want girls to do the right thing (like) being kind to others.
If you were in charge, what would you change?
No bullying. I would talk to bullies and tell them to treat others the way you want to be treated because what if someone else was treating them bad? It's not a good situation.
Why do you want to be mayor?
Because I want to make Girls Inc. a better place. I want to encourage girls to get along and make decisions and learn from their mistakes so they will grow to be successful, strong, smart and bold women.
If you were in charge, what would you change?
I would have a bunch of girls get together and do important things (that get) into the news.
Why do you want to be mayor?
I want to change bullying ... because one time I saw a girl and she was crying and I felt so bad ... Little kids shouldn't be going through so much pain. I want to stop bullying, and the way I'm going to do that is I am going to ask the girl who is crying who bullied her and ask her to take me to that person and ask them what they did wrong and they'll tell me. But I'll do it in a nice calm way so they won't feel bad.
If you were in charge, what would you change?
I wouldn't be irresponsible. Some people would say 'I'm going to let people eat ice cream and stuff' ... No. I am going to do the same thing the principal would normally do. You have to be responsible and responsible for the other principle, because when they come back the next day they are going to like 'Oh my goodness what happened to my school?' I have a lot of good ideas.
Why do you want to be mayor?
I'm running for mayor because I want to tell girls they shouldn't hide their feelings. If the person bullying them won't stop, they can come to me and talk about it nicely. We're gonna have a super girl of the month. Even the girls who aren't super girl of the month are special to someone. I want to show girls to be strong smart and bold.
If you were in charge, what would you change?
I would change the community to tell them to clean the (mess) that they made and to keep the community clean for human beings and animals.
Why do you want to be mayor?
Because I really want to help girls with stuff they need.
If you were in charge, what would you change?
I would take Donald Trump somewhere else. I would have a lot of money and break it apart and give it to homeless people to have a better life.
