WFEC Youth Tour

Photo caption (Group shot with Rep. Coley): (L-R, front row) Tyler McClellan, Blountstown High School; Cassandra Delgado, Graceville High School; Rachel Pelt, Sneads High School; Rep. Marti Coley, amber Nolin, Holmes County High School; Samantha Barnes, Marianna High School;(L-R, back row) Brooke Vickery, Cottondale High School; Keaton Peak, Ponce De Leon High School; Jeffrey Peeler, Malone School; Preston Wilson, Chipley High School; Stephen Lee, Altha School and Robert Hawkins, Poplar Springs High School.

West Florida Electric Cooperative (WFEC) recently joined other co-ops from across the state in Tallahassee for the 2009 State Youth Tour.  During this two-day trip to the Capitol, local high school juniors chosen by their principals and guidance counselors for excellence, and whose parents or guardians are members of WFEC, visited the Mary Brogan Museum of Art where they toured the exhibit, Our Body – The Universe Within. Youth Tour participants also enjoyed a private tour of the Governor’s Mansion.

The students also visited the Florida House of Representatives where they participated in a mock legislative session, proposing and debating bills. In addition, students visited the Supreme Court where they participated in a mock trial.

Contestants representing WFEC in Tallahassee were:  Stephen Lee, Altha School; Tyler McClellan, Blountstown High School; Preston Wilson, Chipley High School; Brooke Vickery, Cottondale High School; Cassandra Delgado, Graceville High School; Amber Nolin, Holmes County High School; Jeffrey Peeler, Malone High School; Samantha Barnes, Marianna High School; Keaton Peak, Ponce De Leon High School; Robert Hawkins, Poplar Springs High School and Rachel Pelt, Sneads High School.

 WFEC’s eleven Youth Tour contestants competed for an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C, where they will join other eleventh grade students from all over the United States to tour the nation’s capitol in June. A panel of three judges from the electric cooperative industry interviewed the students and chose two winners and an alternate on Thursday, February 26, 2009. The winners were Preston Wilson, Chipley High School and Rachel Pelt, Sneads High School. The alternate winner was Cassandra Delgado from Graceville High School.

The Washington, D.C. Youth Tour Program has been in existence since 1957 when co-ops sent students to Washington, D.C. to work during the summer. By 1964, the program caught on, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) began to coordinate the efforts of the co-ops. Since then, thousands of young people have experienced this opportunity.

Photo caption: (2009 YT Winners):
(L-R) Winner - Rachel Pelt, Sneads High School; Alternate - Cassandra Delgado, Graceville High School and Winner – Preston Wilson, Chipley High School