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Laurens Electric names youth trip winners

Staff Report //March 22, 2019//

Laurens Electric names youth trip winners

Staff Report //March 22, 2019//

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Four local students are winners of an expense-paid trip this summer, sponsored by Laurens Electric Cooperative. Three of the students will attend the Washington, D.C. Youth Tour with students from other South Carolina co-ops, where they will join more than 1,400 young people from across the country. The fourth student will go to Columbia to participate in the Cooperative Youth Summit.

The Washington-bound delegates are Victoria Bass, daughter of Stephanie and Greg Bass of Taylors; Amber Goolsby, daughter of Walter and Margaret Goolsby of Mauldin; and Jaimeen Shah, son of Ketan and Ragi Shah of Simpsonville, according to a news release.

The delegates were selected from a group of high school students who were selected after interviews by a panel of judges. They will be among more than 40 other young people from all over the state participating in the tour to the nation’s capital in June.

During their stay in Washington, the students will visit with their representatives and senators and tour sites of historical significance.

South Carolina’s electric co-ops sponsor a state-level trip, similar to the Washington Youth Tour, called Cooperative Youth Summit.

Laurens Electric will be represented by Lleyton Abell, son of Karen Abell of Laurens, on a three-day, two-night event in Columbia in July, the release said. Students will engage in activities designed to teach them about electric cooperatives and the co-op business model, as well as how state government works.

Cooperative Youth Summit attendees will tour an electric generation facility, go on a private tour of the Statehouse, write, debate and pass a “bill,” and engage in team-building exercises and social gatherings.

"We sponsor this tour as part of our commitment to the young people in our service area," said David Wasson, Laurens Electric’s president and CEO, in the release. "We do this to educate high school juniors about American and South Carolina government and about the history and business principles of electric cooperatives."

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