Congratulations to all of those who entered the Missouri Youth tour Essay contest this year, we had a lot of great kids turn in essays at their schools where they were initially judged by a panel of teachers blindly at their schools.  Once they are judged they are narrowed down to the top four essays and forwarded on to IECA where all the kids from all nine high schools in our territory come to the office to interview with three judges.  Students are judged on knowledge of information contained in a Q & A packet we mail to them about IECA and electric cooperatives in general, volunteering information beyond scope of the questions, speaking ability, personality and appearance.  The top student from each school is awarded the Washington DC trip June 14-20 and the second and third place students are then offered the Jefferson City Cooperative Youth Conference Leadership Experience (CYCLE) trip taking place July 14-17.  The Alternates will have the opportunity to attend the CYCLE trip in event one of the other two delegates are unable to attend or if they are not given the opportunity to attend the trip will receive a gift card.