Electric cooperatives give back to their community – Youth Tour is proof positive!

Electric cooperatives distinguish themselves from other utilities through the seven cooperative principles. These principles serve as the guiding business philosophies for cooperatives across the country. It’s how we do business!

Rural Electric Cooperatives were created in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the Rural Electrification Administration. Thanks to the Rural Electrification Act, those farmers and ranchers took it upon themselves to create their own member-owned utilities called cooperatives. This can-do spirit combined with their concern for community (see the seventh Cooperative Principle) is why electric cooperatives sponsor high school juniors and seniors on a weeklong, all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C.

Sen. Lyndon Johnson inspired the Youth Tour when he addressed the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Annual Meeting in Chicago in 1957. He declared, “If one thing goes out of this meeting, it will be sending youngsters to the national capital where they can actually see what the flag stands for and represents.”

Consequently, some Texas electric cooperatives sent groups of young people to Washington, D.C., to work during the summer in Sen. Johnson’s office. In 1958, electric cooperatives in Iowa sponsored the first group of 34 young people on a week-long study tour of the nation’s capital. Later that same year, another bus load came from Illinois. The idea grew and other states sent busloads of young people throughout the summer. By 1959, the “Youth Tour” had grown to 130 delegates.

In 1964, NRECA began to coordinate joint activities among the state delegations and suggested that co-op representatives from each state arrange to be in Washington, D.C., during Youth Tour week. The first year of the coordinated tour included approximately 400 young people from 12 states. Word of the program has continued to spread and today, more than 1,500 young people and their chaperones from 45 states participate in the Youth Tour every year.

The Youth Tour exists to:

• Educate youth on all aspects of rural electrification to promote a better understanding of the value of rural electric cooperatives.
• Provide an opportunity for youth to visit monuments, government buildings and cooperative-related organizations in order to become familiar with the historical and the political environment of the nation’s capital.
• Allow youth to meet elected officials to better understand how federal government operates.