Grace and fellow PUHS student Savannah Foster were chosen to participate in the Washington Youth Tour this summer.
In response to a speech made in 1957 by Senator Lyndon Johnson, a Texas electric cooperative sent a group of youths to Washington D.C. during the summer to observe their government in action. By 1964 the Washington Youth Tour (WYT) was a nationwide program that introduced students, sponsored by their rural electric co-ops, to the highlights of Washington, as well as the workings of a congressional office. Savannah Foster and I represented Patagonia Union High School on the 2014 tour.
The all-expenses-paid “trip of a lifetime,” as Savannah and I dubbed the adventure, began with the Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative (SSVEC) participants from southern Arizona being joined by students from other regions to make up the 41-member Arizona/New Mexico/California group. We proudly showcased our mutual “westernness” by carrying little green cactus stickers in our name badge pouches that we could trade with kids from other states. On the steps of the Jefferson Memorial or the National Air and Space Museum, for example, we would introduce ourselves and avidly trade saguaros for, say, a Georgia peach or a Maryland crab.
Even if a conversation with a girl from Alabama only contained comments about whose accent was “weirder” or “Isn’t this humidity CRAZY?!” it was amazing to be a part of such a large gathering of fellow newcomers to our nation’s capital. I will always remember the first time I stood alongside the Washington Monument, took a picture at Lincoln’s feet, caught fireflies beside the Jefferson Memorial, shook Representative Ron Barber’s hand, and became blissfully lost with my newfound friends in the Museum of Natural History.
My experience on the 2014 WYT showed me that the future of our nation will be in the hands of these newly enlightened stewards of rural America.