POWER LINES
Watchful eyes Youth Tour participants often describe the trip as a profound experience. So do the chaperones. BY HUNTER GRAFFICE
W
hen Ohio’s electric cooperatives send about 40 high school students on a weeklong Youth Tour trip to Washington, D.C., each year, it’s often a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the students to not only tour the nation’s capital from a perspective that not all visitors are privy to, but also to meet and interact with other co-op students from around the country. The trip, however, also provides a unique experience for the chaperones, who get that glimpse of the workings of the capital and also bear witness to the incredible impact the trip has on the students under their watch. Missy Kidwell, senior service specialist at Consolidated Cooperative in Mount Gilead, is assistant director of Ohio’s Youth Tour program. She had been involved in the process of selecting students to attend the trip for several years before she decided to attend as a chaperone. “Being able to see these students start out as strangers but then cultivate a lifelong friendship by the end of the week was pretty amazing,” she says. “I always knew it was an important experience, but didn’t realize exactly how special it was until I saw it in person.” Peter Niagu, energy advisor at Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative in Paulding, chaperoned with his wife, Sabrina, in 2015 and 2016. He was similarly enthusiastic about the experience. “Most of these kids had been to D.C. in 8th grade, but the weeklong trip with Youth Tour is different,” he says. “You get to see them have the opportunity to become leaders.”
4 OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • DECEMBER 2021
Once the bus pulls away from the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives headquarters in Columbus, chaperones and students alike immediately begin to learn more about their cooperative, their country, and each other. “The trip really challenged beliefs I held before I went,” Kidwell says. “I think adults often criticize the youth for their technology use, but I saw firsthand that they aren’t just obsessed with their phones. They are exposed to so much more than most of us were at that age, and technology just helps them navigate that. They’re curious, and they want a better understanding of the world and their country, and that was very apparent and surprising to me on the trip.” Some of the teens also discover — or develop — an interest in politics, leading them to declare political science majors in college or aspirations for law school.
Chaperones often find themselves right in the middle of things on Youth Tour, as Ashley Oakley did with this group at the National Botanical Gardens, Peter and Sabrina Niagu did at the National Zoo, and Missy Kidwell did in front of the U.S. Capitol (top photos).
