Palmetto, GA—April 23, 2015—Sandy Creek High School student Shelby Worrell was recently selected to attend the 2015 Washington Youth Tour, as electric membership corporations (EMCs) in Georgia, including Coweta-Fayette EMC, are set to commemorate 50 years of supporting students and teaching life lessons during the week-long adventure.

Scheduled this year from June 11-18, the Youth Tour is fully sponsored by 38 of the EMCs in Georgia, including Coweta-Fayette. It stands as Georgia’s oldest leadership program for teens and offers students a personal lesson in U.S. history, competitions and contests to encourage leadership and teamwork, conversations with elected leaders on important subjects and current events, and a better appreciation for community and public service.

According to Coweta-Fayette EMC Senior Public Relations VP Mary Ann Bell, leaders today, as well as those at the helm of electric cooperatives five decades ago, hold dear the purpose of the Youth Tour: to prepare young adults for the role of leader and influencer by providing them with knowledge and appreciation of the world around them, skills to become productive and contributing members of society and hands-on learning opportunities that go beyond the classroom.

“For many of these teens, it’s a series of firsts—their first trip away from home, first plane ride, first time to D.C. and first time to meet and create a personal network with others who have similar goals and plans in life,” said Georgia EMC Youth Tour Director Gale Cutler.

Worrell will be part of Georgia’s largest contingent to date—112 students representing 155 counties in Georgia.

The Tour kicks off in Atlanta with keynote speaker Rep. Brooks Coleman, chairman of the House Education Committee. Building upon Coleman’s passion for learning and his role as public servant, the trip also consists of personal visits with students and Georgia’s congressional delegation. In these meetings, students are encouraged to ask questions about issues of the day as well as initiatives that could impact their families and communities.

Paying tribute to those whose vision and sacrifice secured a free and open society is another key component of the WYT. To that end, the participants will visit historic landmarks in the Nation’s Capital, including sites like Arlington National Cemetery, the Smithsonian Museums, the Holocaust Museum, Mount Vernon, the Supreme Court, the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the MLK, FDR, Jefferson, World War II and Lincoln Memorials.

Also while in D.C., the Georgia delegation will join nearly 1,600 Youth Tour participants from co-ops across the country, providing yet another life experience: the chance to meet and learn from a diverse group of peers representing nearly every state.

The Washington Youth Tour was inspired by former president Lyndon Johnson who, in 1957, encouraged electric cooperatives to “send youngsters to the nation’s capital, where they can actually see what the flag stands for and represents.”

Coweta-Fayette EMC is a consumer-owned cooperative providing electricity and related services to more than 76,000 member accounts in Coweta, Fayette, Heard, South Fulton, Clayton, Spalding, Troup and Meriwether Counties.