Cooperative Living November/December 2020 - 39

Co-opPrinciples | by Andrew Vehorn, Contributing Columnist
Of the people, by the people,
and for the people ...
Service over self is the reason cooperatives were formed,
and the reason your electric co-op exists today
n 1940, a young hog farmer in rural Virginia needed
electricity at his farm. He approached the investor-owned
utility, but it refused to bring power to any home or business
that was not located on the town's main road. The farmer
was undeterred and rallied his neighbors to form Prince
William Electric Cooperative.
The property that was too rural for the investor-owned
power company to serve now sits in the middle of the secondmost
populous locality in Virginia. And that farmer, Manley
Garber, went on to become the longest-serving co-op director
in the United States. First elected to the board of the Prince
William Electric Cooperative in 1950, he retired from the
board of NOVEC in 2018.
That spirit of service sent 70 lineworkers from cooperatives
across Virginia and Maryland to drive a convoy to help
Baldwin Electric Membership Corp. in Alabama when
Hurricane Sally left 95% of its co-op members without power.
One Alabama woman wrote on Facebook that she asked
a Virginia-based crew that arrived in her front yard if the
team was ready to help. " Yes ma'am, we're from Virginia -
we drove 900 miles to help you. " As they always do, these
storm soldiers left their families with the same storm bearing
down on the mid-Atlantic to rebuild an entire power grid
for their fellow Americans.
In 2019, that same spirit of service took 15 lineworkers
to Bolivia as part of United We Light, the first overseas
electrification project sponsored by cooperatives in Virginia
and Maryland. Harkening back to the early days of America's
electrification, crews built a new power grid to five villages
that, until their visit, never had electricity.
Home for Holidays
(continued from page 36)
The Southside SPCA's
Keysville-based thrift store,
Tailwaggers, in Southside Electric
Cooperative territory, also has felt
the pinch.
For 15 years, Jim Snow has been
managing the thrift store location that
he says has formerly been a brothel,
a furniture outlet, a funeral home and
an impromptu butcher shop.
" Last year we brought in $73,000 in
profit for the Southside SPCA, but this
co-opliving.com
year we had to shut down for
a while due to the pandemic, "
he says. " Now we are open again,
but we are not seeing the same
level of traffic as before. "
Snow says that although times are
tough, he knows good people will step
up to help the stray animals of Southside
Virginia - he has 14.
" My wife and I have a few dogs, cats,
cows and donkeys, " he says. " But that's
nothing. Linda Wall, a fellow volunteer
here, has 37. She has dogs, cats, donkeys,
sheep, goats and pot-bellied pigs. "
Both Baywater Animal Rescue and
Southside SPCA say they look forward
to the upcoming holidays, and to
memorial donations honoring loved
ones that traditionally come in during
this time of the year.
" We are also going to lower adoption
rates for December, " says Baywater's
Gowe. " We don't want any dogs or cats
spending Christmas Eve alone in a
kennel. " ■
For more information about Baywater
Animal Rescue, go to baywateranimalrescue.org.
For more information about Southside SPCA,
go to southsidespca.org.
November-December 2020 | Cooperative Living | 37
I
And, that same sense of obligation to the community
drove co-ops across Virginia to provide free community
Wi-Fi hotspots so local students, from elementary school
to college, could continue their virtual education during
the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a hamlet in Southside Virginia, a sign hangs over the
community pavilion with the co-op's mission statement:
" To provide services and create opportunities to enhance
the quality of life. " There is no mention of electricity, poles
or wires - only service. ■
Andrew Vehorn is vice president of governmental affairs at the Virginia,
Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives.
A BARC Electric Cooperative
lineworker performs system
repairs in Alabama after
Hurricane Sally.
To provide
services and create
opportunities to
enhance the quality
of life.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BARC ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE
http://www.baywateranimalrescue.org http://www.southsidespca.org http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living November/December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living November/December 2020
