Youth Tour 2027
Perhaps CKEC’s best-known and most anticipated youth program, Youth Tour is a week-long, all-expenses-paid educational trip to Washington, D.C. in June of each year. CKEC annually sponsors four students—all juniors—from high schools within its service territory on Youth Tour. Students travel with the Oklahoma delegation (70+ students) to our nation’s capital where they tour historic sites and national landmarks, meet Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, and more. Youth Tour has earned a reputation as “a trip of a lifetime” by former participants. Youth Tour will be June 18 through June 23, 2027.
Youth Tour is so much more than a sightseeing trip. Students have repeatedly shared that this experience has helped them grow into successful professionals. It has also benefited our local communities. Youth Tour participants return home with a deeper understanding and skillset of what it takes to be leader.
The Youth Tour competition is a two-part contest where high school juniors compete by writing a professional letter to your School Superintendent, or the Oklahoma Governor, or the President of the United States. This year’s topic is if I were the School Superintendent, or the Oklahoma Governor, or the President of the United States for one day, what would I change? The top eight contestants will then record a video about the “Cooperative Difference”-how are co-ops unique?
The top four winners will win a $1,000 scholarship and a one-week, trip to Washington, D.C. with other Youth Tour winners from across the nation.
The four runner-up applicants will each receive a $1,000 scholarship. The deadline to enter is December 15, 2026.
2026 Senior Scholarship
This Year’s Senior Scholarship Winners Are
Paris Burdex - Andarko
Averi Gilbreath – Apache
Kaitlyn Knauss - Carnegie
Kodi Metz – Binger-Oney
Kason Proffitt – Hydro-Eakly
Juliana Pappe - Union City
Talyn Payne – Weatherford
Hailey Payne – Mountain View-Gotebo
Lillian Roush – Arapaho Butler
Sawyer Willrath – Mustang
Channing Wright – Thomas-Fay-Custer High School
Ruby Wright – Weatherford
Energy Camp
A four day action packed adventure for eight-graders, Energy Camp helps develop leadership skills and promotes teamwork while teaching about cooperative enterprises, the rural electrification program and electrical safety.
Each year, CKEC sponsors four students to the camp at Canyon Camp near Hinton, Oklahoma.
While Energy Camp offers many traditional summer camp activities like swimming, hiking, basketball, and a ropes course, teens also have the unique opportunity to climb a utility pole, ride in the basket of a bucket truck, tour one of the largest electricity generating facilities in the state and watch a co-op crew at work. They’ll take home a new found confidence and a host of new friends-like minded peers from all over Oklahoma. Students currently enrolled in the eight grade within CKEC’s service territory are eligible to compete for a spot at Energy Camp. For more information visit www.CKenergy.coop
Special Olympics
One of the most gratifying and fulfilling efforts that CKEC participates in is the Special Olympics. If you have never served as a "hugger" at the finish line, then you can't begin to imagine the overwhelming joy of helping a young person with physical disabilities. Cameras can not adequately capture the sheer determination on the faces of those challenged by life's unfairness as they cross the finish line.
Whether in the first place or last, it is a look that can only be captured in the heart. Our very own Keith DeVaughan of the Member Services Dept. travels to Stillwater, OK, every year to not only encourage his own son but to share the accomplishments of other participants. Way to go, Keith!
