Photo cutline: Pictured from left – Congressman Rodney Davis and Annie Fulgenzi

What do you get when 62 students from 26 Illinois electric and telephone cooperatives join 1,800 of their peers across the United States? You get the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Youth to Washington Tour!

Annie Fulgenzi of Sherman represented Menard Electric during the 2019 Youth Tour to Washington, D.C. from June 14-21.

Students toured Capitol Hill and met with U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth and U.S. Representatives Rodney Davis and Darin LaHood. They also visited historical and cultural sites including Arlington National Cemetery, the Supreme Court, President Lincoln’s Cottage at First National Cemetery, a variety of memorials and the U.S. Capitol. Additional fun activities included an assembly of more than 1,800 Youth Tour participants from across the nation and a special farewell event at the Newseum, scheduled to close later this year.

“Youth Tour is a great opportunity that changes these students’ lives,” says Alisha Anker, Manager of Menard Electric. “This experience helps prepare them for their futures. After touring our nation’s capital, meeting congressional representatives and learning firsthand how our government works, they return home with valuable knowledge and memories that will last a lifetime.”

Since 1964, the nation’s cooperative electric utilities have sponsored more than 60,000 high school students to visit Washington, D.C., talk one-on-one with their U.S. congressional delegations and learn from energy and grassroots government education sessions. NRECA is the national service organization representing the nation’s more than 900 consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives, which provide service to 42 million consumer-members in 47 states.