Youth Tour
The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour has brought high school students to Washington, D.C., every June since 1964. Every year, Co-Mo sponsors a contest to select its delegates to the Youth Tour. These lucky few represent Co-Mo on a whirlwind tour of the nation's capital. They tour museums, visit America's most cherished monuments and even meet their elected officials. All the while they are learning about electric cooperatives and their role in the community. If you are a high school junior, you may be eligible to participate in the Youth Tour program.
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Three juniors win Co-Mo Youth Tour trips to Washington, D.C.
Tipton, Mo (Nov. 18, 2011) — Co-Mo Electric Cooperative awarded three high school juniors with trips to Washington, D.C., as the grand prize in the 2012 Youth Tour competition Thursday night.
The awards were the culmination of a three-month-long process in which high school juniors from around the cooperative’s 2,300-square-mile service territory answered a question about how they would explain the importance of electrical safety to a third-grader.
The finals event, held Thursday at the First Baptist Church in Tipton, welcomed nine finalists — three from each of the cooperative’s three service districts.
After a written quiz, oral presentation and game show competition, the three winners were:
- Sydney Johnson, Warsaw High School
- Callie Loganbill, Tipton High School
- Tyler Silvey, California High School
Those three will be headed to the nation’s capital in June as part of a whirlwind tour with more than 75 kids from around the state of Missouri who will join up with more than 1,500 from across the country.
The Youth Tour was started in 1957 when then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson spoke to a group of electric cooperative leaders and challenged them to send young people to Washington, D.C., to see what the flag stood for and how the federal government operated. Several states took Johnson up on his challenge that year, and Missouri became the 12th state to send delegates in 1964.
“Youth Tour is one of the most important things we do,” said Ken Johnson, Co-Mo Electric’s CEO and general manager. “To have three kids each year be able to learn first-hand about our government, to meet with their elected representatives, to see things they might otherwise never see, that’s a tremendous thing that we’re happy to be a part of.”
The six runners-up do not go away empty handed. They will attend CYCLE — the Cooperative Youth Conference and Leadership Experience — in Jefferson City in July.
“CYCLE is an amazing program that focuses on developing future leaders,” said Co-Mo’s Youth Tour Coordinator John Agliata. “At the same time, they’re having many of the same experiences as the kids who go on Youth Tour, meeting new friends, having fun, that sort of thing.”
The six CYCLE winners are.
- Morgan Pate, Warsaw High School
- Mackenzie Wallace, Warsaw High School
- Dale Brauer, Tipton High School
- Grace Stonner, Tipton High School
- Ryan Combs, California High School
- Samantha Gerhart, California High School
The finals were judged by three individuals from the cooperative world. Mike Marsch, the statewide Youth Tour Coordinator who will be going on his 20th-consecutive Youth Tour in June, was joined by Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives Legislative Coordinator Chris Weber and Rural Missouri magazine editor Jim McCarty in judging the nearly 100 entries in the preliminary round and then scoring the finals competition.
“It was inspiring to see the research and creativity these youth put into finding out about electrical safety,” Marsch said.
The 2012 Youth Tour runs from June 15-21. CYCLE runs from July 18-20.
