Youth Tour delegates gain co-op experience

Youth Tour participants pose in front of the Capital building in Washington, DC
York Elec­tric youth del­e­gates were (from left) Arnav Goel, Addie Fer­rell and Andy Goss. Pho­to by Josh P. Crotzer

By Josh P. Crotzer

Run­ning a com­pa­ny is in Addie Ferrell’s blood. Now it’s on her resume.

Fer­rell, a ris­ing senior at Clover High School and one of the three stu­dent del­e­gates rep­re­sent­ing York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive on Wash­ing­ton Youth Tour, was select­ed by her peers as the man­ag­er of the Soda Pop Co-op dur­ing the trip. Arnav Goel of Fort Mill and Andy Goss of York were also spon­sored by YEC.

“My mom, uncle and grand­pa own a fork­lift busi­ness,” says Fer­rell. “I’ve always looked up to them and want to go into the busi­ness world. When I found out that I could be a man­ag­er for the coop­er­a­tive, I was excit­ed to apply some of my knowl­edge and use it in a dif­fer­ent way.”

A student gazes at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Fort Mill’s Arnav Goel watch­es the chang­ing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Sol­der at Arling­ton Nation­al Ceme­tery. Pho­to by Josh P. Crotzer

The Soda Pop Co-op is a stu­dent-run co-op that sold snacks and bev­er­ages to the 59 del­e­gates on the trip spon­sored by elec­tric coop­er­a­tives across South Car­oli­na. Fer­rell was cho­sen by a co-op board, helped set the prices for the prod­ucts and admin­is­tered sales. As mem­ber- con­sumers, the stu­dents each received $7 in cap­i­tal cred­its, their share of the co-op’s end-of- trip mar­gins. The exer­cise allowed the stu­dents to learn first-hand how the not- for-prof­it co-op busi­ness mod­el works.

“I learned that one of the most vital things is com­mu­ni­ca­tion,” says Fer­rell. “It’s impor­tant that we lis­ten to our cus­tomers because it’s their com­pa­ny. We can come togeth­er and use everybody’s opin­ion to make the best busi­ness pos­si­ble.”

Much of the Wash­ing­ton Youth Tour expe­ri­ence, an all- expens­es-paid trip that includ­ed vis­its to his­tor­i­cal and edu­ca­tion­al sites like George Washington’s Mount Ver­non, Arling­ton Nation­al Ceme­tery and the Unit­ed States Holo­caust Memo­r­i­al Muse­um, was sim­i­lar­ly hands-on. When vis­it­ing the Viet­nam Vet­er­ans Memo­r­i­al, the stu­dents were pro­vid­ed names of sol­diers from their home­towns to etch off the wall. When they went to the U.S. Capi­tol Build­ing, they vis­it­ed Rep. Ralph Norman’s office, spoke with mem­bers of his staff and engaged in ques­tion-and-answer ses­sions with the con­gress­man on the Capi­tol steps.

A student works the Soda Pop Co-op store
Addie Fer­rell deliv­ers a can of Pringles to a Soda Pop Co-op cus­tomer. The co-op would often oper­ate from the bus lug­gage com­part­ment in between tour stops. Pho­to by Josh P. Crotzer

“Just see­ing the Lin­coln Memo­r­i­al and all the things he worked for, stood out to me,” says Goss, a ris­ing senior at York Com­pre­hen­sive High. “Wash­ing­ton has so much to offer, and I thank York Elec­tric for giv­ing me this oppor­tu­ni­ty.”

South Carolina’s youth tourists were not the only stu­dent del­e­gates in Wash­ing­ton. They were among more than 1,500 rep­re­sent­ing elec­tric coop­er­a­tives across the nation. The stu­dents trad­ed their state pins with one anoth­er and went on a river­boat din­ner cruise along the Potomac Riv­er. Stu­dents from across the coun­try also gath­ered for Nation­al Youth Day where they learned about the rich his­to­ry of elec­tric coop­er­a­tives and the impor­tant role of being an active par­tic­i­pant in our democ­ra­cy.