NORTH BALTIMORE — Hancock-Wood Electric Cooperative Trustees recognize three Youth Leadership Council
delegates sent in four years’ time to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association annual meeting
— a feat no other Ohio co-op on record has achieved, according to the statewide association Ohio’s
Electric Cooperatives.
Two honorees have ties to Wood County.
Ryan Wenzinger of Deshler is the 2016 delegate for the NRECA conference in San Diego in 2017.
The co-op sent its first ever YLC representative Olivia Velasquez, named in 2013, to the Nashville
convention in 2014. The same honor was bestowed on Rachel Wenzinger in 2014 and her brother Ryan was
named delegate in 2016. The siblings are both homeschooled and attend Owens Community College post
secondary enrollment option classes.
Ryan Wenzinger started his Triple R Hay business when he was 15 and grows, cuts, bales, sells and
delivers hay. He serves as president of his 4-H Club and has been an officer on the Wood County Junior
Fair Board for two years. He also competes in varsity and golf sports through McComb Schools.
Rachel Wenzinger operated her own cake business from age 11 and appears in several OCC television
commercials. She has attended two-years of PSEO classes, providing a head start to her studies at
Cedarville University, where she will attend in fall. She also was named this year’s Wood County Junior
Fair Queen.
Not to be outdone, Velasquez was the first Ohio YLC delegate ever asked to speak at the NRECA national
conference.
Her “Are We There Yet?” speech was delivered to an audience of more than 8,000 CEOs, board members and
co-op officials. She shared the stage with such high-profile talent as noted journalist Jane Pauley and
famed country-western performer Martina McBride.
In her oration, she said, “In order to put change in motion, we must consider the emotion of the people
involved. Before the EPA should ban coal-powered plants for harmful emissions, we must consider how to
electrify rural homes, such as ours, without these plants. We may not have to go back to oil lamps, but
electricity may not be available 24/7.”
She now attends Harvard University, enrolled in the prestigious ivy-league school’s premedical program.