Eighty-four high school juniors participated in Missouri’s 44th annual Missouri Electric Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. June 13-19. Several from this area attended. They were sponsored by Intercounty Electric Cooperative, Licking.
The six-day tour provides an action-filled week for high school students, offering them opportunities to learn first-hand what it is like to be involved in politics, community service and today’s pressing issues. Highlights included a special session on Capitol Hill with Sens. Christopher Bond and Claire McCaskill to discuss the process of government and issues of the day and increasing their knowledge of cooperative electric utilities and American history.
The young people also visited with representatives from their congressional districts, toured famous monuments, the Smithsonian Institution’s museums and Arlington National Cemetery. The group also took a sightseeing and dance cruise on the Potomac River one evening with delegates from other states.
Other events of the week included participation in the Electric Youth Day, during which a special program coordinated by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association brought together more than 1,500 Youth Tour delegates from across the United States. The delegates enjoyed featured speeches by government leaders and motivational speakers, such as Mike Schlappi, an inspiring four-time Paralympic medalist and two-time world wheelchair basketball champion.
Since 1964, the nation’s cooperative electric utilities have sponsored more than 40,000 high school juniors and seniors for visits to their U.S. congressional delegations, energy and grassroots government education sessions and sightseeing in Washington. For more information about the AMEC Youth Tour program, go to www.amec.org/youth.html.