Cuivre River Electric Cooperative is proud to announce its 2021 Youth Tour winners.

The six top-scoring students, selected as Youth Tour delegates, will each receive a $1,000 college scholarship and laptop. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this summer’s trip to Washington, D.C., has been canceled. The six delegates will be invited to this year’s Youth Tour conference scheduled for June 16-18 with a hybrid in-person and virtual experience due to the pandemic (two of the days will be spent at CREC’s office and the other day will be spent in Jefferson City).

The winners of the 2021 Youth Tour competition are Taylor Shay-Jakul, Jaden Zelidon, Sanjana Anand, Amanda Yoder, all of Liberty High School; Ella Smith, Warrenton High School; and Natalie Benton, Fort Zumwalt East High School.

Twelve finalists were announced in March. Normally, a finals banquet and competition are held each year where finalists present their essays orally. However, due to the coronavirus situation, the banquet was canceled and three finals judges read each of the essays remotely. The scores from the preliminary and finals competition were combined to determine the Youth Tour delegates and scholarship recipients.

The other six finalists will each receive a $500 scholarship. They are Elizabeth Hamby, Jackson Martin, Sarah Dickson and Kelsey Looney, all of Liberty High School; Mikenna Collins, Warrenton High School; and Rhiannon Meyer, Liberty Christian Academy.

The annual Youth Tour contest is open to students who live and attend school in Cuivre River Electric’s general service area, or who have CREC service in their homes. For more information about the Youth Tour program, contact Tim Schmidt at 800-392-3709, ext. 4837 or by email at tschmidt@cuivre.com.