Museums, monuments and memories

Ian Herbert didn’t dream a small-town boy like him would ever get to take a private tour of the U.S. Capitol. “Never in my life did I think this would happen,” Ian says. “Me, just a boy from Jack, Alabama, it was unreal.”

Ian, a senior at Zion Chapel High School, joined fellow South Alabama Electric Cooperative delegate Jackson Cleveland, a senior at Pike Liberal Arts School, and other students in a tour led by Rep. Barry Moore, a Coffee County native.

“For us to be able to go in there after hours was really special. It was just our group of about 60, so we could hear everything the guides told us,” Jackson says. Both students were impressed by the architecture and artwork inside the Capitol.

During the National Rural Electric Cooperative’s Youth Tour, more than 1,800 delegates selected to represent electric cooperatives throughout the country gather in Washington, D.C., to tour the nation’s capital and learn about the national im- leaders of our communities, and we believe it is so important for students to see firsthand our nation’s history and how valuable it is for electric cooperatives to have a voice in Washington,” SAEC General Manager David Bailey says.

First impressions

This trip was the first time Ian and Jackson visited Washington, D.C., and both marveled at the experiences.

“We were there for a week and barely scratched the surface,” Jackson says. Along with the nighttime Capitol tour, the delegates took in the traditional sights popular with tourists, including monuments, memorials, museums and more.

Youth Tour attendees were treated to a night at The Kennedy Center to see the Broadway production “The Lion King.”

“I had goosebumps left and right,” Ian says. “I feel like nothing is ever going to live up to that experience.”

portance of electric co-ops

For the SAEC delegates, the journey to D.C. began in March, when the co-op selected 11 students to attend the Alabama Rural Electric Association Youth Tour in Montgomery. From those 11 students, two finalists were selected by an independent panel of judges to attend the Washington, D.C., tour.

“These are the future

Students also toured many monuments, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Jackson was especially impressed by the Korean War Veterans Memorial, after his grandfather recommended he look at it closely.

“He asked me to really look at their faces, and you could definitely see fear,” Jackson says. The memorial, which features 19 statues of soldiers walking, represents four branches of the U.S. military, the Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force.

“I think the memorial does a great job honoring the soldiers,” he says. “We even saw a Korean War veteran while we were