Capital Youth Annual Tour Sows Seeds of Volunteerism, Understanding
	Forest fires = mercury, and more to come
	Editorial
	Wisconsin Favorites Muskets and Memories Civil War Reenactment Delights History Buffs, Scholars

Years before his presidency, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson suggested to a crowd of 5,500 electric cooperative leaders gathered in Chicago that rural electric cooperatives should send a youth delegation to Washington, D.C. Always a strong supporter of cooperatives, Johnson believed the experience would, among other things, demonstrate to young co-op members how their government functioned. The year was 1957.
At Johnson’s urging, the very next year electric co-ops in his home state of Texas were among the first to organize a youth tour to the Nation’s Capital. The high school students visited the monuments, read some of their country’s most important documents, and witnessed their government in action. Washington is rich with history. At the same time, it is a large, modern city with a diverse populace and a bounty of cultural opportunities.
Now jump ahead to mid-June 2002. It’s more than 40 years since the first Texas youth delegation toured Washington, D.C. The grand monuments are unchanged with the exception of some new memorials around the Mall. The greater metro area of Washington has witnessed tremendous growth, not unlike the growth experienced in the National Youth Tour. In 2002, the Texas delegation was joined by almost 1,500 teenagers from nearly every state in the nation. Among them were five delegates representing electric cooperatives from Wisconsin.

History Comes Alive

“This was my first trip to Washington, D.C. It opened my eyes to the history of America and introduced me to some interesting people from other states,” said Isaac Hankes, a Wisconsin delegate from Randolph. For Isaac and others experiencing Washington for the first time, there was a new, but strangely familiar, site at every turn. Textbook history lessons were coming alive.
Some Wisconsin delegates had previously visited Washington on family vacations, class trips, or other sponsored events. Now they could revisit favorite sites and explore new places, too. Everyone was aware of heightened security, but only those with a past perspective understood just how much Washington, D.C., had been changed by the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
As the hub of government and business activity and with its impressive monuments and historical areas, Washington is the ideal host city. But the National Youth Tour is about much more than simply being a tourist on a bus. Nearly one complete day is set aside for a full agenda of inspirational speakers and thought-provoking discussions. This year’s theme, “Volunteers In Action,” was demonstrated throughout the week. “I volunteer much of my time at home,” said Hanna Johnson of Osceola, another Wisconsin delegate. “This trip not only enabled me to discover Washington, D.C., but it also helped me to discover who I really am.”

Message to The Hill

The youth delegates discussed the importance of volunteerism and outlined things yet to be done in their local communities. After some debate they adopted a resolution identifying economic challenges—and solutions—facing rural communities. Later in the week this same resolution was carried to Capitol Hill and voiced by individual delegates in meetings with elected officials.
The Wisconsin delegation spent a rewarding day on Capitol Hill, enjoying personal visits with Senator Herbert Kohl and Representative David Obey. They were escorted on a Capitol tour by Jennifer Eloranta, Obey’s staff assistant. “Our day on Capitol Hill was the highlight of the trip,” commented Jennifer Wohlfert, Oxford. Michaela Schaefer of Medford added that talking with congressional staff members gave her insight on what it’s like to live and work in Washington, D.C.
In a true cooperative effort, Wisconsin has joined forces with nine other states to more efficiently provide travel, lodging, meals, and bus tours. Among the group are delegates from: Utah, Idaho, Washington, Alaska, Wyoming, California, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Colorado.
At home in Koosharem, Utah, Don Torgersen is a rancher and a longtime director for his local electric cooperative. Don also represents his state on the board of directors for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, where he chairs the organization’s committee for International Programs. He and wife, Melinda, have acted as tour directors for the National Youth Tour since 1985. It is largely due to their experience and dedication that the National Youth Tour has grown and prospered.

Friends, Life Experiences

Unwritten parts of the National Youth Tour agenda include nearly limitless ways for the delegates to make new friends and experience life outside of their own hometown. There are also opportunities to attend workshops and national meetings. For example: Loretta Pfannes from Osceola was selected as Wisconsin’s youth delegate to the 2003 NRECA national meeting to be held in Nashville, Tennessee in February. Loretta will also attend a four-day leadership conference this summer at the NRECA training facility in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Each and every one of the approximately 1,500 delegates to the National Youth Tour took home more than photos, souvenirs, and suitcases full of laundry. Along with new friendships, they gained fresh perspectives on their government, their local electric cooperative, and nearly 1,000 other RECs around the country. These are the same young people who will assume the leadership roles at board tables and in their communities in the not too distant future. The time invested at the National Youth Tour will serve them well.—Keith Wohlfert, Adams–Columbia Electric Cooperative

Messages and Memories from the Youth Tour

Editor’s note— Chaperone for this year’s National Rural Electric Cooperative Association Youth Tour was Keith Wohlfert, communications coordinator for Adams–Columbia Electric Cooperative. He filed the following observations after returning from the trip in mid-June.

It was my honor to chaperone the Wisconsin delegation to the National Youth Tour. Personally, this was my sixth trip to Washington, D.C., but my first in recent years and my first as a chaperone of this cooperative group. I looked forward to the trip, even if the events of September 11th left me somewhat apprehensive.
As a licensed pilot, the trappings of air travel are generally part of the adventure. Getting there is usually half the fun. No longer is that true. Heightened security may be necessary, but it comes at a high price.
Washington, D.C., has changed since my last visit. Security cameras now look down from the corners of many tall buildings and concrete barriers are commonplace. Tourists are among the few people who do not have some type of photo identification clipped to their clothing. Building access points are limited but metal detectors and check points are not. I wonder where all of the security personnel came from and where they worked before September 11th.
Wisconsin was well represented at the National Youth Tour. These kids are highly respectful of others and every one of them has a clear vision of what he or she wants to do with his or her life. They volunteer freely of their time and I believe all of them are among the top scholars in their respective schools. You can sit down and have a wonderful conversation with them. I did just that on several occasions.
It might seem that Washington, D.C., is a long way removed from the devastating fires in Colorado, but we learned otherwise. One of the girls in the group from Colorado received a 3 a.m. telephone call from her mother. Fire had already destroyed the church where her father is pastor. The dad is also a part-time police officer and was quite possibly in harm’s way. Mom called to report that the fire was now within one mile of their home and evacuation was their only alternative.
The next morning a silence came over our multi-state group as the girl struggled to share her news. Cohesiveness developed from this tragedy. After hugs and well wishes, these kids continued their comfort and support throughout the week. It was barely planned and never done to excess. Kids would discretely share updated information and do what they could to help their new friend. Collectively, it was one of the most sincere acts of compassion you could ever imagine.
Later we learned that shifting winds had changed the fire’s path. The girl’s small community was safe for the moment and families were allowed to return home. I think the scars of the forest fire will be erased long before I forget this story. It is one of my best memories of the 2002 National Youth Tour.—Keith Wohlfert

Nuisance Solutions: One Easy,
One Complicated
by Perry Baird, Editor

Following our feature story last month on utility efforts to bring back the endangered Peregrine falcon, one reader wrote to say he had been observing a pair of the predatory birds near Westby, Wisconsin, for the past two years. It’s unclear if these particular birds are related to the falcons so successfully established in nesting boxes on Dairyland Power Cooperative’s smokestacks, but it’s known that birds from that project have relocated throughout a large geographic area, and Westby isn’t that far from the Dairyland plant at Genoa where numerous Peregrines have fledged since 1998.
Vernon Electric Co-op member Francis Perkins wrote to say he watches the falcons as they swoop along the sheer walls of a quarry, hunting pigeons that nest there. That’s evidently one of the falcons’ favorite meals—a fact that Dairyland Power employees happily discovered after re-establishing Peregrines along the eastern shore of the Mississippi. As a side benefit to falcon-restoration efforts, money previously spent at the power plants to control pigeon populations —$10,000 to $15,000 annually—is now being saved. It’s a win for all concerned, except, of course, the pigeons.

300 Times as Expensive as Pigeon Control

Literally a stone’s throw from the stack where falcons nest and hunt their cooing prey stands a building that houses gear from a nuclear reactor that the co-op used to operate. Spent fuel from that reactor, accumulated during 16 years of operation, sits in a storage pool where it has languished since Dairyland closed the nuclear plant in 1987. Assemblies containing spent, radioactive fuel take up floor space measuring only about 120 square feet, but the monitoring, security, and maintenance expense to Dairyland amounts to upwards of $4.5 million annually.
It was thought—and promised—that the federal government would take charge of the waste and move it elsewhere so that the facility could be finally decommissioned. That, obviously, hasn’t occurred.

Long-Awaited Vote

We note in this month’s edition that Congress has taken a long-awaited and positive step towards resolving the question of where this type of radioactive spent fuel from Dairyland and more than 100 nuclear plants around the country will be permanently and securely stored. Federal lawmakers acted responsibly when they voted in favor of advancing Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as the repository site. They showed keen understanding of how important it is to the electric-power industry, electricity ratepayers, and national security to craft a solution to the
nuclear-waste question.
Still, more than eight years will pass before Yucca Mountain can begin to accept spent-fuel assemblies, and continuing challenges to its approval as a repository are certain. Prospects for interim-storage solutions may become unsteady as well, as we also note in this month’s
News Briefs. So, in spite of the decisive action by Congress, we can expect continuing costs and the potential for security risks that come with storage at widely scattered locations across the U.S. Too bad it wasn’t as easy to rid the co-op of its nuclear-waste nuisance as it was to take care of the pigeons.

Muskets and Memories
Civil War Reenactment Delights History Buffs, Scholars

Senses are jolted into awareness by the thunderous roar of exploding gunpowder. A huge plume of white smoke billows out across the lush, green valley in front of the crowd of onlookers. Once again, the quiet city of Boscobel in southwest Wisconsin is transported back into the midst of a 19th century struggle for independence.
Muskets & Memories will sponsor its 10th annual Civil War Reenactment on August 2–4, 2002. This popular family-oriented event annually hosts 1,000 participants and 5,000 spectators from across the U.S. and Canada. Highlights of its many features include battle reenactments, a ladies’ garden party, a period garment show, a military ball and pie social, and 1860 children’s activities. A new feature this year will be guided camp tours by a noted local historian.
Entering the encampment, visitors feel as though they have stepped back in time a century and a half. Authenticity of display and presentation are emphasized, and most of the reenactors remain in character throughout the weekend. The camp also contains an extensive group of sutlers (tent merchants) and craftsmen. Among the craftsmen displaying their talents are a cobbler, a blacksmith, and an authentic cooper who fashions wooden kegs, barrels, and canteens by hand.
In addition to camp activities, the organizers have arranged for Dr. C. Boswell of Illinois to display her remarkable collection of Underground Railroad quilts and lecture on the significance of quilt patterns as a secret communication code for slaves fleeing to the North. Dr. Boswell’s presentation begins at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 2, in the United Methodist Church at Boscobel.
A unique offering at the event is the availability of college credit for participation. Students who have preregistered are “recruited” by units on Friday evening. Students are clothed, equipped, and trained by the units to live in camp, and they participate in weekend activities. UW–Platteville offers undergraduate, graduate, and teacher recertification credit for this immersion into life during the 1860s. It is open to both seasoned reenactors and the uninitiated.
Additional information and a schedule of events are available on the Internet at www.boscobelwisconsin.com/mm, by e-mail at cirushwk@mwt.net, or by toll-free phone at 888/710-5206.