Covington Electric Cooperative sponsors students from each participating high school within its service area to attend the Montgomery Youth Tour. Students are selected through an essay competition held in the fall.

The CEC Youth Tour participants joined approximately 140 students from across the state on March 10-12, for a trip to Montgomery that included tours of the Alabama State Capitol, Alabama State House, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Civil Rights Museum and more. The trip also included team-building activities with a motivational speaker and a Q & A session with former Congressman Jo Bonner.

The Montgomery Youth Tour participants will compete on March 26, for two slots on the National Rural Electric Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., this summer. The competition will include a test and an interview with a panel of judges. About 46 students sponsored by co-ops throughout Alabama will attend the national Youth Tour. In Washington, D.C., they will join approximately 1,500 students from across the nation.

CEC sponsors students to attend the state and national Youth Tours each year. The purpose of the Youth Tour is to inform young people about how cooperatives benefit their members, to provide an opportunity to see government in action, and to meet other young people from across the state and nation while visiting historical sites and landmarks.