In June 2016, an exuberant high school junior from Cabot boarded a plane for Washington, D.C., as part of the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas Youth Tour.
Her name: Caleigh Pickard.
Selected by First Electric Cooperative, Caleigh went on to serve as the state’s Youth Leadership Council representative. She stayed involved with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Youth Tour for years on a broader scale.
This experience didn’t just shape a summer. It helped guide a future, which is exactly what Youth Tour is designed to do.
Today, Caleigh is a website solution consultant with Powerful Web, serving electric cooperatives across the country. In 2023, she helped lead the redesign of ArkansasLivingMagazine.com — a full-circle moment that brought a former Youth Tour student back to help shape the magazine she grew up reading. That project went on to earn national and international awards.
And recently, her story came full circle again, this time on a national platform.
In May at NRECA’s Connect Conference inSan Diego, Caleigh invited Arkansas Living to join her for a presentation, sharing the story of our website redesign and rebrand. It was a meaningful moment for all of us, professionally and personally.
Because somewhere along the way, Caleigh became part of our family. And she’s not the only one.
Caleigh’s proud grandfather, Larry Glover, a familiar and welcome presence at co-op events, has become everyone’s Papaw. He even flew out with part of the Arkansas contingent to San Diego, and was right there with us as we presented.
This is the power of Youth Tour and cooperatives investing in tomorrow’s leaders.
Each year, Arkansas cooperatives send deserving students on an all‑expenses‑paid trip to our nation’s capital, where they visit historic sites, meet our congressional delegation and learn about leadership, public service and the cooperative difference. This year’s group will travel June 13-19, embarking on a meaningful and memorable experience.
And who knows? The next Caleigh (and Papaw!) might be in that group.
Ten years ago, she was a student from Cabot. Today, she’s helping tell the cooperative story on a national stage — and reminding us why Youth Tour matters.
Tour on,
