Garrett Faucette and Taylor Walden Selected for the 2011 Washington Youth Tour
	Garrett Faucette Brooks County High School		Taylor Walden Cook High School

Cook High School student, Taylor Walden, and Brooks County High School Student, Garrett Faucette, will spend one week of their summer attending the 46th annual Washington Youth Tour—an all-expense paid leadership experience sponsored by Colquitt EMC and other EMCs in Georgia.

High school juniors across Colquitt EMC’s service area applied and interviewed for the opportunity.  The judging committee conveyed the task to choose only two students was difficult as all the applicants displayed exceptional leadership skills. Taylor and Garrett will be among 103 Georgia high school students on the weeklong leadership event set for June 9-16 with stops in Atlanta, Warm Springs and Washington D.C.  In addition, Georgia’s students will join more than 1,500 students from 44 states for the event.

Before flying to Washington, D.C., Taylor and Garrett will spend a day in Georgia where they visit Atlanta sites and tour the Little White House in Warm Springs.  In D.C., stops include Ford’s Theater, the Smithsonian Museums, Holocaust Museum, Union Station, Mount Vernon, Supreme Court, Capitol, Washington Monument, and the Jefferson, World War II, Lincoln, Korean War and Vietnam Veterans monuments and memorials. 

The youth will also participate in a moving wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, view the United States Marine Corps Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima Memorial, attend a Congressional meeting with U.S. Representatives, and meet both U.S. senators from Georgia.

As Georgia’s oldest leadership program for teens, the Washington Youth Tour is designed to teach high school students about U.S. history, government and the importance of public service. The Washington Youth Tour was inspired by former president Lyndon Johnson who, in 1957, encouraged electric cooperatives “to send youngsters to the nation’s capital where they can actually see what the flag stands for and represents.