If you are a high school junior, you could be a winner of the Rural Electric Cooperative Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. for a week during June. It's free, it's exciting and it’s fun! You’ll join some 1300 high school juniors from across the United States to learn more about government, rural electrification, leadership and electric cooperatives.

The trip begins with a “Get Acquainted Banquet” in Oklahoma City, where everyone meets, makes new acquaintances and has an evening of fun. After arriving in Washington, D.C., the tour of our nation’s capitol includes days filled with sightseeing, a riverboat trip on the Potomac and lunch with Oklahoma’s Congressional delegation.

Red River Valley Rural Electric Association sponsors an annual essay contest to select students who will represent their service area as well as the state of Oklahoma during the Youth Tour. The contest will require you to prepare and submit an essay over a chosen topic.

Six finalists are selected by judges to compete at the Youth Tour Banquet. Scores are based on subject knowledge, originality, neatness, and grammar. Finalists are required to present their essay orally at the banquet. By presenting their essay orally they will receive extra points to be added to their written score and the winners will be announced at the conclusion of the banquet.

The Youth Tour has three main objectives:

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

Students must currently be classified a high school juniors attending a school in RRV’s five county service area. It is not necessary that the student’s parents be members of Red River Valley Rural Electric Association.

• Contestants will be required to write an essay of approximately 500 words in length on the official topic.
• Essays must be typed and double-spaced on only one side of the paper.
• Attach a completed entry form to your essay. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THE ESSAY! All judging is done on an anonymous basis.
• RRV supplies reference materials, but encourages students to seek other sources of information, including libraries, relatives, magazines, Internet, etc.
• Deadline for all essays will be announced each year.
• Be sure to keep a copy of your essay for your use should you be selected as a finalist.
• Seven finalists will be selected to give oral presentations of their essays during the Youth Tour banquet in the spring. Judges will then award the Washington trip to two highest scoring finalists. The four runner-up students will receive cash awards.
• Decisions of the judges are final.
• Please contact REA for Youth Tour deadlines and dates (usually in June).

Resources
The Web sites below contain facts; figures and stories that may be helpful as you prepare your essay. RRV in no way endorses these sites or the companies and organizations they represent. It is the responsibility of each contestant to verify the accuracy of all facts and figures found within these materials.

• History of American Electric Cooperatives:
  • The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
  • History of other Oklahoma Electric Cooperatives
  • The Rochdale Cooperative & The REA
  • The REA and the New Deal
  • Guide to REA Information
• Cooperative Information:
  • The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives
  • The University of California – Davis Center for Cooperatives
  • Cooperative.org
  • The National Cooperative Business Association
    · Understanding Cooperatives – The USDA
  • Rural Development in America

For Information:
Bridgett Bamburg or Greg Winchester, Youth Tour Coordinator
(580) 276-3364 or (800) 749-3364