NASHVILLE – 185 students, teachers and co-op chaperones have returned from a week in our nation’s capital as delegates of the 2019 Washington Youth Tour. The annual event, sponsored by the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association and the state’s 23 electric co-ops, provides young leaders with an opportunity to explore the nation’s capital, learn about government and cooperatives and develop their leadership skills. Students were selected for the trip by writing short stories titled “Electric Cooperatives – Connecting Communities” that explain how co-ops provide communities with much more than electric power.
“We take
great pride in recognizing the best and brightest from across Tennessee,” said
Todd Blocker, vice president of member relations for the Tennessee Electric
Cooperative Association and tour director. “By honoring their accomplishments
through programs like the Washington Youth Tour, we show these future leaders
that their co-op cares about the future. We want these young people to come
home with a better understanding of their nation and new passion to serve their
community.”
Tennessee’s Youth Tour delegates saw the White House and memorials to past presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as well as monuments honoring the sacrifices of veterans of World War II and the Vietnam and Korean Wars. During visits to the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, the touring Tennesseans saw and experienced natural, historical and artistic treasures. Other fun stops included historic homes of former presidents — George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Jefferson’s Monticello — as well as Ford’s Theater and a boat cruise down the Potomac River. The group also paid a solemn and sobering visit to Arlington National Cemetery where the delegtes laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
For many,
the highlight of the trip was hearing from Holocaust survivor Ms. Esther
Starobin at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her advice to the
delegates was, “Don’t be a bystander in this world. You have to know history
and pay attention to it. Get involved and learn as much as you can with more
than a single viewpoint.”
The group
was welcomed to the U.S. Capitol by Sens. Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn
and members of the Tennessee congressional delegation who posed for photos and
answered questions.
While in
D.C., winners were announced in the statewide competition for the Robert
McCarty Memorial Scholarships. Jacob Coble from Meriwether Lewis Electric
Cooperative, Alyssa Hampton from Fayetteville Public Utilities and Melanie
Garcia from Appalachian Electric Cooperative were awarded $3,000, $2,000 and
$1,000 Robert McCarty Memorial Scholarships for having the first, second and
third place papers of the more than 10,000 papers submitted across the state.
McCarty was
an employee of Volunteer Energy Cooperative and longtime chaperone on the
annual Youth Tour. McCarty lost a battle with cancer in 2015, and sponsoring
cooperatives renamed the scholarships in honor of his love for young people.
Keslin
Moore, a senior from Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative was awarded a
$10,000 Cooperative Youth Ambassador Scholarship. Moore was a 2018 delegate of
the Washington Youth Tour. In the year following the tour, delegates who remain
engaged with their sponsoring cooperative and complete certain community
service requirements are eligible for the scholarship. Moore’s name was
randomly selected from among the 50 delegates from across the state who
completed the requirements.
“An
investment in these young people is also an investment in the communities we
serve,” said David Callis, CEO of the Tennessee Electric Cooperative
Association. “These are exceptional students, and our hope is that their youth
tour experience empowers them to return home and make a difference in their
communities.”
President
Lyndon Johnson inspired the Washington Youth Tour in 1957 when he encouraged
electric cooperatives to send youngsters to the nation’s capital. In the years
since, more than 6,000 young Tennesseans have been delegates on the Washington
Youth Tour.