Cooperative Living June 2016 - 4

Viewpoint | by Richard G. Johnstone Jr., Executive Editor
ISSN 1529-4579
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Editor
BILL SHERROD
Editor
LAURA EMERY
Field Editor
JANET BAILEY
Production Manager
LAURIE MILLS,
Apple Eye Studio, LLC
Graphic Designer
AMANDA S. CUNNINGHAM
Advertising Sales
SUSAN C. GLISSON
Advertising Assistant
To contact magazine:
9 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F
Phone: (804) 346-3344
Or at any time:
Fax: (804) 346-3448
Email: bsherrod@odec.com
Web: www.co-opliving.com
Published by the VA, MD & DE Association
of Electric Cooperatives
LARRY C. HOWDYSHELL
Chairman
JAMES E. HUFFMAN
Vice Chairman
HERBERT R. PATRICK
Secretary
FLETCHER B. JONES
Treasurer
JACKSON E. REASOR
President
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Vice President
Board of Directors: R. Wayne Browning, Belvin Williamson, Jr.,
A&N; C. Michael Sandridge, Michael J. Keyser, BARC; George N.
Goin, Gary E. Wood, Central Virginia; Robert E. Arnold, Michael
I. Wheatley, Choptank; Jeannette S. Everett, Steven A. Harmon,
Community; James E. Huffman, Shawn C. Hildebrand, CraigBotetourt;
Patricia S. Dorey, J. William Andrew, Delaware;
Fletcher B. Jones, John C. Lee, Jr., Mecklenburg; Russell G.
Brown, Greg W. White, Northern Neck; J. Manley Garber, Stan C.
Feuerberg, Northern Virginia; Dale McNiel, Randell W. Meyers,
Powell Valley; Herbert R. Patrick, Micheal E. Malandro, Prince
George; Richard C. Oliver, Kent D. Farmer, Rappahannock; Larry
C. Howdyshell, Myron D. Rummel, Shenandoah Valley; Frank W.
Bacon, Jeffrey S. Edwards, Southside.
To advertise in Cooperative Living, contact:
Amanda Cunningham (804) 346-3344
National Advertising Representative: NCM,
611 South Congress Ave., Suite 504,
Austin, Texas 78704 * 800-626-1181
Member of the NCM network of
publications, reaching more than
8 million homes and businesses.
PRESSRUN . . . . . . . . . 515,065
COOPERATIVE LIVING (USPS 473-300) is
published 10 times a year, monthly except for
combined March/April and November/ December
issues, by the Va., Md. & Del. Association of Electric
Cooperatives. POSTMASTER, address changes
should be sent to: Cooperative Living, 4201
Dominion Boulevard, Suite 101, Glen Allen, VA
23060, (804) 346-3344. Periodicals Postage paid at
Glen Allen, VA, and additional mailing offices.
Subscription: $4.90 per year for members of
subscribing co-ops; $10 per year for all others.
ADVERTISING published is accepted on the
premise that the merchandise and services offered
are accurately described and willingly sold to
customers at the advertised price. Neither this
magazine nor the electric cooperatives in Virginia,
Maryland, and Delaware endorses any products or
services advertised herein. If any readers encounter
non-compliance with these standards, they are
asked to inform the Editor.
The Maypole, Reborn
There was no dancing around these Maypoles, but there was
plenty of celebrating, as a high-flying group of young men last
month became the first graduates of a new school created with
the help of Virginia's electric cooperatives.
L
ong ago, in the analog age, high school
students took civics, most knew their way
around a slide rule, and every May 1st many
would celebrate the greening earth by dancing
around a Maypole.
This quaint tradition dates back several
centuries and is now largely obsolete, yet may
well have gotten a new lease on life recently, as
young people on May 12 celebrated around a
different kind of " Maypole, " this one a 40-foot
utility pole on which they had trained tenaciously
since late winter.
Through a mix of hitting the books inside the
classroom and climbing the training poles
outside, 11 young men spent 11 intense weeks
learning the basics of electric-utility line work -
literally from the ground up.
The most wondrous and wonderful part of this
story may not even be the fact that this new
Power Line Worker Training School is the first of
its kind in Virginia, but that it went from rough
vision to vivid reality in a mere 11 months ...
from an inaugural meeting of the minds in April
2015 between representatives of Virginia's electric
cooperatives and Southside Virginia Community
College (SVCC) ... to the beginning of classes on
March 1. (See cover story, page 12.)
From the outset, the program seemed to ride
on a wave of good fortune, fortitude, faith and
financing.
The good fortune was due at least in part to the
fact that creating such a school was simply a great
idea, with the closest comparable one hundreds
of miles away in north Georgia.
The program's staff provided the fortitude,
and kept the faith. This dedicated group of
professionals at SVCC worked tirelessly over
many months to meet the countless deadlines
involved in building a complicated training
program virtually from scratch.
Two state grants helped provide financing. One
came from the state's community college system,
the other from the governor's office, both given to
help this program allow young people to gain
valuable skills - and apply them in jobs - close
to home.
Electric cooperatives across Virginia provided a
generous measure of all four ingredients, in the
process creating a winning recipe that joins
2
public and private sectors in common cause to
meet a shared need for workforce training and
community development. Virginia's electric co-ops
stepped up and provided financial and material
support to a school that will produce skilled
applicants for line-worker jobs for years to come.
And two cooperatives that together serve much
of Southside Virginia have been especially involved
in the school from the get-go. Mecklenburg
Electric in Chase City and Southside Electric in
Crewe were key players in envisioning and
planning the school, whose journey from idea to
reality is a living testament to one of the core
principles of every cooperative business: a
commitment to the communities it serves.
Southside and Mecklenburg provided technical
expertise and invested sweat equity to make
certain that the outside area - " the playground "
as it's called by the students - was set up to fully
train and test these budding professionals in work
that is important, satisfying ... and dangerous.
Training for danger, though, seems to be part of
the DNA of Pickett Park, an industrial complex
outside Blackstone that houses the school. The
park occupies part of the bootprint of old Fort
Pickett, a former U.S. Army base. Developed in
1941 as World War II drew closer to America's
shores, Fort Pickett was where many thousands of
young soldiers were trained before heading off to
defeat the greatest threat the world has ever seen,
in the process becoming known as The Greatest
Generation.
Last month, 11 members of the Millennial
Generation celebrated the completion of their own
" basic training, " in this case the rigors of electricutility
line work. On graduation day, their words
reflected an understanding that - just like soldiers
- the real test of their training is yet to come, in
the daily double duty of watching out for your
own safety, and for that of your crewmates.
But on that May day, past rigors and future
challenges were put aside for a few moments. In
the field of poles on which they had been trained
and tested, their spirited shouts and jubilant cries
were an untethered exultation, an expression of
pure joy, an exclamation marking the end of their
difficult first test of mind and body.
And marking the beginning of their climb
toward a promising career. 
www.co-opliving.com
http://www.co-opliving.com http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living June 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living June 2016
