News Releases

Studying Pays Off for Oconee County High School Junior

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2006

Contact Greg Brooks, 770/266-2307, or Katie Woodall, 770/266-2572

MONROE, Ga. - Sarvesh Garimella studied hard for his shot at a trip and leadership experience this summer. It paid off when he scored in the top eight contestants from across ten counties in the first round of Walton Electric Membership Corporation’s (EMC) annual Washington Youth Tour contest.

After placing in the top eight on the written test covering basic electricity, cooperatives, energy and electrical safety, Garimella went on to an interview session where judges selected him as one of four to make the trip.

Garimella and three other Walton EMC delegates will meet others from EMCs across the state in Atlanta to begin the tour. The kickoff banquet features an address from 2005 Walton EMC Delegate Anna Blue, whose Youth Tour peers elected her to represent Georgia on the national Youth Leadership Council.

The following day, delegates participate in leadership exercises and tour Roosevelt’s Little White House in Warm Springs.The delegation then travels to Washington where highlights include a day on Capitol Hill complete with a Georgia Congressional Delegation luncheon, a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a Broadway play at the Kennedy Center.

Delegates will also experience all the Washington sights, like the Smithsonian, the monuments and the White House.

The Washington Youth Tour is open to all high school sophomores and juniors who live or go to school in Walton EMC’s service area. The next opportunity to qualify will be January 2007.

Walton EMC is a consumer-owned electric company with 110,000 accounts in ten Northeast Georgia counties between Atlanta and Athens.

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