Elmo youth returns from D.C. trip

Tanner Adkins, Elmo, recently completed a week-long trip to Washington, D.C. for the forty-ninth annual Missouri Electric Youth Tour.

The high school junior was sponsored by United Electric Cooperative of Maryville.

The six-day tour offered students opportunities to learn first-hand what it is like to be involved in politics and community service.

Highlights included a meeting on on Capitol Hill with Missouri senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill.

The young people also visited with House members from their local districts; took a dance cruise down the Potomac River; and toured a number of monuments, museums and Arlington National Cemetery.

Other events included participation in Electric Youth Day, a convention hosted by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association that brought together more than 1,500 Youth Tour delegates from across the United States.

Youth Day keynote speaker was Mike Schlappi, a four-time Paralympic medalist and two-time world wheelchair basketball champion.

The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives has sponsored the D.C. tours since 1964, allowing more than 40,000 high-school juniors and seniors to visit the national's capital.