Rural Electric Youth Tour Essay Contest Winners Named at Annual Banquet

The 12 finalists for the DEMCO Youth Tour Essay Contest are pictured from left to right Anna Jolibois, Brooks Courtney, Kole Guerin, Thomas Wolff, Grant Falcon, Colin Craig, Alexis David, Kylie Yglesias, Sarah Pursifull, Lizzie Wicker and Maddison Hadden. Alexis David, Grant Falcon, Madison Hadden, Sarah Pursifull, Lizzie Wicker, Kylie Yglesias are all students at Central High School and Anna Jolibois is a home school student from Central.

    Local high school students Brooks Courtney of Holden High School, Molly Magee of St. Joseph’s Academy, Anna Jolibois and Thomas Wolff (both of whom are home school students) each won an all-expense paid trip, this coming June, to Washington, D.C.  They were the four winners in the 2015 DEMCO Rural Electric Youth Tour Essay Contest.
    The essay contest is an annual event that includes essay entries from students throughout DEMCO’s seven-parish service area. Each student who participated wrote an original essay on the topic of the 7th Cooperative Principle: Concern for Community.
    The four winners were selected March 3, 2015 during a banquet honoring the 12 finalists, their families, teachers, and school principals.  The banquet was held at John Folse’s White Oak Plantation in Baton Rouge.
    The other eight finalists included the following area students:  Colin Craig, Alexis David, Grant Falcon, Kole Guerin, Madison Hadden, Sarah Pursifull, Lizzie Wicker and Kylie Yglesias.
    Featured speaker Staff Sergeant Luke Boyd of the United States Marine Corps and LSU Tiger Football Player praised the students for their excellent presentations and commended DEMCO for providing this opportunity to area youth.
    “Stay focused on your goals,” Boyd urged the students, “but never forget that your family is there to support you all the way.” 
Each finalist was judged on the oral presentation of his or her essay.  The finalists also completed a short test on their knowledge of DEMCO and rural electrification.
    DEMCO’s four Youth Tour winners will join about 25 other Louisiana students in late March for the Louisiana Youth Tour Leadership Conference to be held in Baton Rouge.  During the conference, the students will learn more about cooperative business principles, form and operate a mini-cooperative business, and will also learn about the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.
    The same Louisiana Youth Tour students will leave for a weeklong trip to Washington, D.C in mid-June.  While in Washington, D.C., the Louisiana Youth Tour participants will visit the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Supreme Court, National Archives, Arlington Cemetery, and many other historic buildings and landmarks.  They will also join about 1,300 other Youth Tour participants from around the nation to learn more about electric cooperatives.
    2015 marks the 37th year DEMCO has sponsored students in the Youth Tour program.  The purpose of the Youth Tour program is to provide outstanding youth with an insight into how their national government operates.