Gilk learned a lot about the local, county, and state levels of government while at the event.
"I became interested in becoming a Boys' Stater after attending the Memorial Day Program at the elementary school, and seeing the things the staters did," said Gilk.
In order to become a stater Gilk had to write an essay on one of many topics to choose from. The topic he chose to write about was on Jesse Ventura.
After the essay Gilk had an interview with Harold Morris of Paynesville American Legion, Paynesville Lutheran Church Pastor Rick Hoyme, and PAHS government teacher Jeff Youngs.
Once the Boys' Staters had arrived at St. Olaf they were put into groups. Each group was to represent a town, and form a town government. Gilk was put into the Hibbing group for town government. The other towns and cities that were used are Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, Moorhead, Mankato, St. Cloud, Rochester, Clara City, Winona, Austin, St. Peter, and Stillwater.
They were also put into county groups. Gilk was placed in the Crow Wing County group.
"We learned about local government mostly," said Gilk. "But we also learned about state and county government as well."
The Boys' Staters were kept pretty busy with a heavy itinerary. They had to be up by 7 a.m. every day. They would then eat breakfast and go to the chapel to listen to the main speaker for at least an hour. Then they would have to go to a city meeting and after the meeting they had lunch. After lunch they had another city or county meeting. At about 3 p.m. they participated in sports. After sports they would have supper then another speaker, and maybe another city meeting, before going to bed around 11 p.m.
Gilk ran for the representative office, but did not get elected.
Gilk thought it was a lot of fun, even though they were kept really busy.