Energy is focus of Farmers Union Epic Event

The Wells-Eddy-Foster Youth Epic Event on August 6 included 34 youth and 12 adults. The event served as the annual Farmers Union day class which gives member youth points toward winning Cenex gift cards, Farmers Union Camp Co-op Store coupons, a reward trip to Minneapolis/St. Paul, All-States Camp in Colorado, and eventually the Torchbearer Award for graduating seniors with opportunity to win Farmers Union Scholarships.

The participants traveled by Farmers Union bus to Falkirk Mine near Underwood. There they traveled by tour bus onto the open coalfields where they were allowed to take home some fresh lignite coal as souvenirs. The youth had many insightful questions and were able to see all the equipment that eventually moves the coal to the Great Plains Energy Plant. The tour was followed by lunch overlooking the Garrison Dam and then a tour of the ND Fish Hatchery. The highlight of the hatchery tour was the invitation by the guides to pick up several varieties of fish from the tanks and actually see the various mouth structures and feel the skin. The third tour of the day was near Max, at a wind farm owned by Basin Electric.

The lessons for the day all centered on the three kinds of cooperatives: service, marketing and supply. Presentations by Lowell Larson and Ellen Linderman were given on Farmers Union Oil Company development and the ND Farmers Union member-owned Agraria Co-op with eight restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. The Fessenden Cooperative Association helped to sponsor the event with travel subsidy and other funding came from education funds provided by Cen-Dak and Arrowwood Prairie co-ops.