Legislature Recognizes Texas Youth Tour

May 20, 2015

Texas Electric Cooperative’s celebration of 50 years of participation in the Government-in-Action Youth Tour included the adoption of House Resolution 2553 congratulating member cooperatives and the program for sending thousands of high school students to Washington, D.C.

Rep. Brooks Landgraf of Odessa sponsored the resolution. He was joined at the dais by 10 representatives who have electric co-ops in their districts and wanted to support Landgraf in presenting the resolution on the House floor May 20. Watch Landgraf deliver the House Resolution on the House floor here.

Landgraf attended Youth Tour as an Odessa Permian High School student in 1998, one of 3,719 Texans who have made the trip since 1965. “I’m proud to say I’m one of them,” he said. “In fact, that was one of my first experiences with public service.”

Eric Craven, TEC’s senior vice president of government relations and legal affairs, said the resolution shows the Legislature recognizes co-ops’ commitment to helping develop future leaders. “Rep. Landgraf and the others who joined him showed their support not only for the Youth Tour but for electric co-ops generally,” he said.

Youth Tour 2015 kicks off June 10 in Austin, where the 125 teens will join past participants for an anniversary celebration. The next day, they’ll tour the Capitol and other sites before heading to Washington for a week.

This month also marks the debut of Your Tour magazine, which will be published annually to help keep all Texas participants connected to each other and to the program. Alumni and future participants also can stay informed at TexasYouthTour.com and the Texas Youth Tour Alumni page on Facebook.