South Kentucky RECC recently took ten area students to Washington, D. C. for the 45th annual Washington Rural Electric Youth Tour on June 10-17, including Cassidy Key from Clinton County High School.

Students attending the Washington Youth Tour from the South Kentucky RECC service territory included, from left to right, front row: Taylor Carter, Bailey Pierce, and Katie Carter; second row, left to right: Kaylie Polston, Cassidy Key, Emma Layne Turner, Ally VanHook, and Aryn Stephens; back row, left to right, Zachery Starrett and Trevor Smith.

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.

Ruby Patterson, SKRECC Vice-President of Member Services and Public Relations, says programs like the Washington Youth Tour are important for our youth.

Since 1972, Kentucky’s electric cooperatives have sent nearly 3,000 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.

If your student is going to be a high school junior this year, they can apply for the 2017 Washington Rural Electric Youth Tour beginning in January. Applications are available at the guidance offices of high schools within the South Kentucky RECC service territory.