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Starting Monday, September 15, 2025, our Wewahitchka office will be located in a temporary location (637 Highway 22) while our new headquarters office is constructed. We look forward to continuing to serve you during this transition. Thank you for your patience and support as we build a new, improved space...
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637 Highway 22 Wewahitchka, FL 32465

GCEC Students Enjoy the Trip of a Lifetime

Emily Rollins, left, of Bay High School, and Taylor Schreiber, of Deane Bozeman School, represent Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative during Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., this summer. Photo courtesy of Emily Rollins

In June, rising seniors Emily Rollins of Bay High School and Taylor Schreiber of Deane Bozeman School traveled to Washington, D.C., for the weeklong National Rural Electric Youth Tour. The 2 won Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative’s Youth Tour contest.

The cooperative sponsors the contest for 11th graders whose parents or guardians are members of GCEC. Contestants are interviewed by a panel of 3 judges from the electric cooperative industry.

2 winners are chosen for the all-expenses paid trip, joining 2,000 youth delegates and chaperones representing 44 electric cooperatives from around the country.

The trip included visits to the Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., World War II, Korean War, Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam War monuments; a Capitol tour; a baseball game; a boat cruise on the Potomac River; seeing the September 11 Memorial; a National Cathedral tour; and visiting Arlington National Cemetery, Mount Vernon, the National Archives, the National Portrait Gallery, the Udvar Hazy Center at the Smithsonian Center, the Holocaust Museum and the Library of Congress.

The group also took Co-op 101 and advocacy classes, met with lobbyists, and took pictures in front of the White House.

“We were proud to have Emily and Taylor representing Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative in Washington,” says Kristin Douglas, GCEC vice president of marketing and communications. “Over and over again, the Youth Tour trip has been referred to as the trip of a lifetime, and we hope it truly was for these exceptional students.”

The Youth Tour program started in 1957 when co-ops sent students to Washington, D.C., to work during the summer. By 1964, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association began coordinating the effort. Thousands of young people have experienced the opportunity to visit our nation’s capital and learn about our government.