Submitted PhotoJonelle Christopher from Valdosta High School and Kevin Eppes from Lowndes High School at the Colquitt EMC-sponsored leadership event in Washington, D.C.

VALDOSTA – Students from across Georgia recently returned from the Washington Youth Tour, a week-long leadership experience exclusively for teens sponsored by the electric cooperatives in Georgia, including Colquitt EMC.

Held June 8-15, Colquitt EMC delegates joined 1,700 peers in Washington, D.C., to build leadership skills, understand the importance of civic involvement and community service, and to tour the nation’s historic sites to gain a greater understanding of the country’s rich and storied heritage, according to an organizational press release.

Colquitt EMC sponsored Kevin Eppes from Lowndes High School and Jonelle Christopher from Valdosta High School. Kevin is the son of Kevin and Zane Eppes. Jonelle is the daughter of Johnny and Jaime Christopher.

Joni Fox with Colquitt EMC said a carefully chaperoned tour of the nation’s capital and its treasured monuments and memorials not only provides students a meaningful history lesson but the opportunity to experience it through interactive exhibits and firsthand accounts.

In Georgia, the 2017 contingent included 113 student delegates, 14 chaperones and three tour directors who attended a kick-off banquet in Atlanta for the student delegates and their families before departing the next morning for D.C. for the remainder of the trip.

While in D.C., stops included Mount Vernon, Arlington Cemetery, U.S. Capitol, National Archives, National Cathedral, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian museums and Kennedy Center. The students also toured the revered Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, World War II, Vietnam and Korean War memorials.

In addition, the group had dinner one evening at Toby’s Dinner Theater and saw the play “Beauty and the Beast.”

“Students also gained perspective on some of today’s important issues and their role as involved citizens during discussions with staff and/or members of Georgia’s congressional delegation,” according to the press release.

Colquitt EMC is a member-owned cooperative providing electricity to 43,926 members with 65,616 meters in Berrien, Brooks, Colquitt, Cook, Lowndes, Tift and Worth counties.