Whatever it takes! Iowa Youth Tour participants join Senator Chuck Grassley for a pre-dawn run in Arlington, Virginia.
Photo credit: Luis Gomez

ARLINGTON, VA; June 15, 2011 – In the pre-dawn today, a group of students representing Iowa electric cooperatives joined Iowa Senator Charles Grassley for a run that featured impressive views and equally impressive hills.

Sponsored by their local electric co-ops, the students are visiting Washington, D.C., as part of the 47th annual Electric Cooperative Youth Tour program.

Each year in June, the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour brings more than 1,500 high school students from across the country to the nation’s capital. The students participating this year are meeting with their Representatives and Senators, watching Congress in action from the galleries, attending educational sessions, and visiting museums, memorials and historical sites.

The Youth Tour is a joint effort of local electric co-ops, their statewide associations, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). In the past 46 years, more than 40,000 future leaders have come to Washington with the help of their electric cooperatives.

NRECA is the national service organization for more than 900 rural electric utilities that provide electricity to approximately 42 million consumers in 47 states and sell approximately twelve percent of all electric energy sold in the United States.  Most NRECA members are consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives.