Youth Tour Winners Announced

(REDMOND, OR) – This year’s Central Electric Cooperative Washington, D.C., Youth Tour winners represent the best and brightest Central Oregon has to offer.

There was an array of applicants this year with impressive essays, records of community involvement, and achievements that made it hard to narrow the field of four applicants. The CEC Board of Directors approved sending two representatives to the nation’s capital in June.

CEC is pleased to announce Chloe Blackledge and Michael Dickens from Ridgeview High School will represent Central Electric Cooperative during June 9-16.

“These students will represent our co-op and Central Oregon well and use this experience to further their future goals and commitment to community,” says Jeff Beaman, CEC’s membership services director.

Blackledge participated on the Mountain View High School Robotics Team early in her high school career, competed at the Young Entrepreneurs Business Week, and volunteers locally.

Dickens is an honor student and Academic All Star at Ridgeview High School, participates/acts in a school film production, and has successfully raised $5,000 of relief aid for victims of the Thailand tsunami in 2004.

The Washington Youth Tour is a program offered by electric cooperatives throughout the nation to high school juniors from their co-op membership. Participants receive an all-expense paid trip to the nation’s capital where they are immersed in the nation’s history visiting sites like Arlington National Cemetery, the Washington Monument, and the Smithsonian. In addition, students not only meet with other participants their age from across Oregon and the nation, but they also get the opportunity to discuss current issues with representatives, senators and Congressional staff members.

A member-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperative, Central Electric Cooperative (CEC) has provided electric utility services to its members in central Oregon since 1941. At the close of 2014, CEC served 32,097 accounts in its 5,300 square-mile service territory in Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson, and parts of Lake, Linn, Wasco, and Grant counties. CEC’s electrical system includes 24 substations and 3,833 miles of energized power lines, including 183 miles of transmission line, 2,263 miles of overhead distribution line and 1,387 miles of underground distribution line.