2012 SWRE Youth Tour Contest
Open to Texoma 11th Grade Students

Southwest Rural Electric Cooperative will provide two area high school juniors with the trip of a lifetime next summer. Top prize in SWRE’s annual youth tour contest for one Oklahoma student and one Texas student will be an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. for a close-up look at our nation’s government in action.

The winners and six other contest finalists will receive cash prizes of $250 each.

The contest is open to all 11^th grade students who attend a high school in the SWRE service area. Eligibility is not limited only to students whose families purchase electricity from SWRE. Any student may enter.

In Texas, SWRE area schools include Chillicothe, Crowell, Electra, Harrold, Northside, and Vernon.

Oklahoma schools in the SWRE area are Altus, Blair, Davidson, Frederick, Navajo, Snyder, and Tipton.

To enter the contest, 11^th grade students must write a 500-750 word essay on a specified topic that relates to the importance of electricity in rural America. Essays must be received at the SWRE office in Tipton, Oklahoma, in February 2012 (due date to be announced).

Based on the essays, eight students will be invited to SWRE’s Tipton headquarters in late March to meet with contest judges and present the information from their essays. At that time winners of the Washington, D.C. trips will be named and cash prizes will be awarded to the participating finalists.

The winning Texas student and Oklahoma student will travel to Washington, D.C. in mid-June 2012  with state delegations of youth tour winners. In the nation’s capital they will tour the U.S. Capitol, meet with elected officials, and visit important monuments and locations, including the White House and Mount Vernon.

Complete information resource packets for entering the contest will be provided this fall to 11^th grade English teachers in schools throughout the SWRE service area.

The contest packets may also be obtained by calling Southwest Rural Electric at 1-800-256-7973.

“Service to the youth of our area has been a Southwest Rural Electric tradition since the cooperative was established in 1937,” said Mike Hagy, SWRE CEO. “For more than 45 years our cooperative has sponsored the annual youth tour contest and sent two students each year to our nation’s capital. For many of those young people, the trip has been incredibly positive, life-changing experience. I encourage all 11^th grade students in area schools to participate in the 2012 contest. Their reward may be great.”