Lashawnda Harkness and Wesley Adam Owings are the winners of an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. sponsored by Laurens Electric Cooperative. They will travel with other South Carolina students to the nation's capital where they will join more than 1,400 students from across the country. The nation's electric cooperatives sponsor the one-week event each June.

"We sponsor this tour as part of our commitment to the young people in our service area," said Jim Donahoo, Director of Marketing of the cooperative. "We do this to educate high school juniors about American history and government and about the history and business principles of electric cooperatives."

The students attending this year’s Washington Youth Tour to represent Laurens Electric Cooperative are Lashawnda Harkness of Taylors, a junior at Riverside High School, daughter of Josephine Harkness, and Wesley Adam Owings of Mountville, a junior at Clinton High School and the son of Wanda and Henry Pitts.

These students were selected from a group of high school students who completed an application and were interviewed by a panel of judges.  They will be among 43 other young people from all over the state participating in the tour to the nation's capital city, June 10 - 15. 

During their stay in Washington, the students will visit with their representatives and senators and tour sites of historical significance.

Youth Tour participants from 39 states will meet in Washington, D.C. for the tour, which has been conducted for more than 40 years.

Laurens Electric Cooperative serves 49,000 member-owners in Laurens, Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Newberry, Union, and Abbeville counties. Since 1939, the co-op has been dedicated to being the provider of choice for energy and related services in the Upstate.