Each year Blue Valley Tele-Communications/Networks Plus selects one student from its service area for an all-expenses paid trip to Washington D.C. The student represents the company during site seeing activities and educational sessions. This year, Skylar Widmer, Marysville, was selected. Widmer will travel to the Nation's capital in June, along with over 100 other rural students, to learn about rural telephony. Applicants were required to submit an essay depicting how Internet impacts lives.

Widmer described hearing stories from people of what life was like before the Internet, but that he himself could not recall a time it wasn’t available to him. “I use it [Internet] to connect to the world – for news, sports, and current events,” he said. Widmer also described the value the Internet provides when doing schoolwork, banking, shopping, and most importantly when learning how to do new things.  

Widmer, son of Pam Widmer, is a junior at Marysville High School. He is on the MHS cross country, wrestling, and track teams.