Celebrating 60 Years of the Washington Youth Tour

 

Georgia’s elec­tric mem­ber­ship cor­po­ra­tions (EMCs) par­tic­i­pat­ed in their first Wash­ing­ton Youth Tour (WYT) in 1965, mak­ing the trip last June the state’s 60th year attend­ing what many stu­dents have described through­out the years as the “trip of a life­time.”

In June 1965, Geor­gia was one of 17 states to send stu­dents on the tour, join­ing more than 600 stu­dents from across the nation. Twelve stu­dents from three Geor­gia elec­tric co-ops—Walton EMC in Mon­roe, Flint EMC (now Flint Ener­gies) in Reynolds and Planters EMC in Millen—left Savan­nah by train to vis­it the nation’s cap­i­tal.

Today, 38 states par­tic­i­pate in the WYT, and more than 1,800 stu­dents attend. Georgia’s 116 del­e­gates rep­re­sent­ed 38 Geor­gia EMCs.

The idea for the pro­gram took shape in 1957, when future Pres­i­dent Lyn­don B. Johnson—then major­i­ty leader of the U.S. Senate—suggested at a Nation­al Rur­al Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Asso­ci­a­tion (NRECA) Annu­al Meet­ing that rur­al elec­tric co-ops should bring their young peo­ple to the nation’s cap­i­tal to learn first­hand how their gov­ern­ment oper­ates. Co-ops began spon­sor­ing indi­vid­ual youth tours like the one Georgia’s EMCs host today.

Coor­di­nat­ing the Wash­ing­ton Youth Tour takes year­round prepa­ra­tion by Geor­gia EMC’s WYT direc­tor as well as each EMC’s tour coor­di­na­tor.

“Prepar­ing for the Youth Tour involves con­stant study­ing and research,” says Andy Paul, WYT direc­tor and pub­lic rela­tions rep­re­sen­ta­tive with Tuck­er-based Geor­gia EMC. Last year was his third year coor­di­nat­ing the trip. “I also try to com­mu­ni­cate as much as pos­si­ble with del­e­gates and par­ents so that trust is built before 130-plus of us trav­el to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., after hav­ing just met at the kick­off ban­quet.”

He adds that local WYT coor­di­na­tors also are work­ing to pre­pare del­e­gates for the trip.

“This includes host­ing events to answer ques­tions from stu­dents and par­ents, offer­ing clear com­mu­ni­ca­tions about expec­ta­tions and build­ing excite­ment by assur­ing them all that this will be their favorite week of their high school career,” he says.

Paul attend­ed the Wash­ing­ton Youth Tour as a del­e­gate rep­re­sent­ing Wash­ing­ton-based Rayle EMC in 2011, when he was a ris­ing junior in high school.

“I grew up in an EMC house­hold, with my dad work­ing at Rayle EMC and also Wal­ton EMC, so I knew the sense of com­mu­ni­ty that EMCs car­ried,” he says. “I love being in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., and one of my pas­sions is cre­at­ing mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences for stu­dents, so this was tru­ly the per­fect role for me!”

Bill Vern­er was Youth Tour direc­tor in the 1980s and ear­ly 1990s. He retired after 40 years in the elec­tric co-op world in Sep­tem­ber 2020.

Like Paul, Vern­er had been a WYT del­e­gate before becom­ing the WYT statewide direc­tor. He attend­ed the Youth Tour in 1979 short­ly after grad­u­at­ing from high school, rep­re­sent­ing Cen­tral Geor­gia EMC in Jack­son, and his sis­ter, San­dra Vern­er Latimer, par­tic­i­pat­ed in Georgia’s first Youth Tour in 1965. Vern­er also was elect­ed by Georgia’s del­e­ga­tion to rep­re­sent the state on the 1979 NRECA Youth Lead­er­ship Coun­cil, for­mer­ly the Youth Coun­sel­ing Board.

“I had an incred­i­ble year and got to speak on behalf of the NRECA youth pro­gram at the nation­al FFA con­ven­tion in Kansas City, at the Nation­al Grange farmer meet­ing in Penn­syl­va­nia, to a nation­al 4‑H gath­er­ing, and then to the NRECA meet­ing in New Orleans,” Vern­er recalls. “It was a pret­ty heady expe­ri­ence for a col­lege fresh­man from the lit­tle town of Rut­ledge.”

As Youth Tour direc­tor dur­ing the begin­ning of his tenure at Geor­gia EMC, Vern­er says it was an hon­or tak­ing young peo­ple to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., each year.

“See­ing the nation’s cap­i­tal and get­ting to inter­act with our elect­ed offi­cials … I think it makes our fed­er­al gov­ern­ment more tan­gi­ble and relat­able,” he says. “The laws and reg­u­la­tions that come from our nation’s cap­i­tal are going to affect all of us, and under­stand­ing where that pol­i­cy comes from and the his­to­ry of our coun­try is some­thing every­one should have an expe­ri­ence to see first­hand. And there’s no bet­ter way of doing that than on the Wash­ing­ton Youth Tour.”

Gale Cut­ler became the statewide direc­tor in April 2000—two months before her first-ever WYT—and took 2,007 stu­dents on the tour over two decades. She says it’s dif­fi­cult to choose a favorite place to vis­it or a mem­o­ry after 20 years of coor­di­nat­ing the trip, but she cher­ish­es the del­e­gates’ day at the Capi­tol.

“At the begin­ning of the week, they are kids going on a field trip. But when they are talk­ing with our leg­is­la­tors, they are young, engaged con­stituents. … They real­ize that their gov­ern­ment is close enough to touch it if they want to, and they get leg­is­la­tors to look them in the eye, lis­ten to their ques­tions and answer them, and at 16 or 17 years old,” Cut­ler says.