South Kentucky RECC recently took twelve area students to Washington, D. C. for the 43rd annual Washington Rural Electric Youth Tour on June 13-20.

Students attending the Washington Youth Tour from the South Kentucky RECC service territory included, from left to right, front row: Ashley Harper (Clinton County), Whitney Oaks, Morgan Sexton, Chantella Corder, Melody Massengale, Mackenzie Long, Katherine Corder, David Withers, SKRECC Energy Advisor and chaperone, (back row) Alan Coffey, SKRECC Member Services and Marketing Manager and chaperone, Kaylie Padgett, Kurtis Dotson, Dallas Shook, McKayla Hamlin, and Miranda Surber.

The Kentucky Rural Electric Washington Youth Tour is an annual, week-long, all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D. C., which is open to select high school juniors going into their senior year whose homes are served by electric cooperatives.

Most of Kentucky’s electric cooperatives, including South Kentucky RECC, participate in this tour each year. Nationwide, electric co-ops from 41 states send students, with nearly 1,500 young men and women from across the nation gathering in Washington, D. C. each year.

South Kentucky RECC’s mission statement says that the co-op will work to “improve the quality of life in its communities.” An important way that the co-op feels it can improve the quality of life is through its youth, and one way is by participating in the Washington Youth Tour each year.

Since 1972, Kentucky’s electric cooperatives have sent more than 2,500 high school students to Washington, DC, for visits with their U.S. senators and representatives, energy and grassroots government education sessions, and sightseeing.

The group, while in Washington, D. C., visited many of our nation’s memorials, the U. S. Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, and met with Kentucky’s congressmen and senators.