OEC鈥檚 2024 Youth Tour wrapped June 21 and set an all-time record for the number of cooperatives participating in the program. 50 student delegates from 20 不良人研究所 cooperatives and 1 West Virginia co-op (Harrison REA), descended on the nation鈥檚 capital for a week-long, all expenses paid, educational trip to Washington D.C.听
New this year, all Youth Tour delegates from across the country, approximately 2,200, stayed under one roof at The Gaylord at National Harbor.听OEC's Youth Tour Director Missy Kidwell, along with other volunteer chaperones, hosted the delegates for an itinerary packed full of iconic Washington D.C. sites.
鈥⑻ 听Flight 93 Memorial, Pennsylvania
鈥⑻ 听Gettysburg Battlefield, Maryland
鈥⑻ 听Potomac River Boat Dinner Cruise
鈥⑻ 听U.S. Capitol Building
鈥⑻ 听Legislator Visits
鈥⑻ 听Steven F. Udvar Hazy Air & Space Center
鈥⑻ 听World War II Memorial
鈥⑻ 听Korean War Memorial
鈥⑻ 听Vietnam War Memorial
鈥⑻ 听Iwo Jima Sunset Parade
鈥⑻ 听Library of Congress
鈥⑻ 听The U.S. Supreme Court
鈥⑻ 听The White House
鈥⑻ 听National 9/11-Pentagon Memorial
鈥⑻ 听United States Holocaust Memorial Museum听
鈥⑻ 听Arlington National Cemetery
鈥⑻ 听Natural History & American History Museums
鈥⑻ 听National Archives
鈥⑻ 听Washington Monument
鈥⑻ 听Jefferson Memorial
鈥⑻ 听Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial听
鈥⑻ 听Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial听
Youth Tour and Youth Leadership Council participants are high school sophomores and juniors living on cooperative lines.听
For more than 50 years, high school students from across the nation have gathered in Washington, D.C., for the trip of a lifetime, courtesy of their local sponsoring electric cooperatives, their state association, and the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association. Youth Tour gives students the opportunity to explore our nation鈥檚 capital, meet with elected officials who represent their hometowns, get to know other cooperative students from across the country, and learn about the electric co-op network.
Each Youth Tour participant has the opportunity to be selected as the one person to represent their state on NRECA鈥檚 Youth Leadership Council (YLC). If elected by their fellow Youth Tour delegates, a state YLC representative will deliver a speech for their sponsoring co-op鈥檚 board of directors, work with their co-op on October Co-op Month projects, speak at their co-op鈥檚 annual meeting, and much more.听
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