POWER TALK
CO-OP YOUTH HAS EYE ON INTERNATIONAL WORK
Little did 19-year-old Daniel Sanders of Madisonville know when he applied for the 2008 Government-in-Action Youth Tour that it would light the path pointing him toward a potential career of supplying electricity to other countries.
Sanders’ adventure began last June when he was chosen by Mid-South Synergy to attend the Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., alongside 1,500 other students from co-op families around the country. After his first trip to the nation’s capital, Sanders earned a return trip when Texas Electric Cooperatives, the statewide association representing electric cooperatives, named him its representative on the Youth Leadership Council of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). This honor entailed an additional trip to New Orleans in February for the NRECA annual meeting.
There, Sanders had a life-changing conversation with former Sudanese refugee Abraham Awolich, one of that country’s Lost Boys who were orphaned or displaced by civil war. In 2001, after living in refugee camps, Awolich was relocated to Vermont, where he lived with an American family, and in 2008 he returned to Sudan to help open a secondary school.
Awolich, co-director of the New Sudan Education Initiative, said international programs such as those sponsored by electric cooperatives can dramatically improve people’s lives. For example, he said that if the NRECA placed a single electric light post in any part of the country, an entire village would be built around that light source within six months.
Many electric cooperatives in Texas have indeed supplied equipment and expertise to electrify villages in Africa and other parts of the Third World.
“It’s amazing what the little things can do for people,” Sanders says. “These people are waiting for any sign of hope, and I want to help provide it for them.”
Since his trip to New Orleans, Sanders has returned to Texas A&M University with the goal of earning a business administration degree and a dream of someday working for the NRECA International Foundation.
“My dream job is to work with the NRECA providing electricity to developing countries,” he says.
Sanders encourages all youths in rural Texas to take advantage of the scholarship opportunities that electric cooperatives offer, saying, “It’s a unique experience that I wish more kids could be a part of. It has changed my life.”
BEWARE OF SUBSIDY SCAMMERS
Scam artists are taking advantage of publicity concerning generous new government energy rebates and subsidies. They are calling consumers offering to link them up with subsidized energy programs for a slight fee. And if the fee is paid with a credit card number, so much the better. Thieves can walk away not only with money for doing nothing but also with credit card numbers to exploit.
Government spokespeople point out that energy-conservation rebates and subsidies are administered by official agencies and community grant programs, as well as designated utility companies. Don’t be fooled by telemarketers or door-to-door hucksters trying to sell you something that’s free.
POWER TIP
Time magazine reports that organizations with four-day workweeks report several advantages, including reduced energy costs. A college that went to four-day weeks for employees saved $268,000 in energy costs over the year.
HAPPENINGS
If you speak cow—Soooook cow! Soooook cow!—then mooove yourself into the lineup at the 60th annual National Cow Calling Contest, set for June 5-7 in the tiny Panhandle town of Miami.
The actual cow-calling contest will take place Saturday, June 6, as the centerpiece of this weekend extravaganza—essentially a town reunion—that begins with a community sing-along on Friday and ends with cowboy church on Sunday.
Cow callers of all ages compete for first-, second- and third-place cash prizes. Judges stand in a creek bed a few hundred yards away and adhere to one simple rule: Whoever they can hear the best wins.
For more information, call (806) 868-4791 or go to www.miamitexas.org.
WHERE THE COMANCHE ONCE ROAMED
Once the raiding grounds of the Comanche and later part of the historic Chisholm Trail cattle drive, Cleburne State Park makes for a prime adventure. Named after the city of Cleburne—which is named for Gen. Pat Cleburne of the Confederate Army—the park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s. The densely wooded 528-acre park is southwest of Fort Worth. One of the park’s most enjoyable features is the 116-acre lake of clean, clear, calm water flowing from the surrounding natural springs. Many visitors explore the park’s rugged terrain and rolling hills on the 5.5-mile mountain bike trail. Others discover the park’s beauty by fishing, from shore or from boat. The park offers tent camping, recreational vehicle hookups, screened wooden shelters, and day-use picnic areas and campsites. New men’s and women’s group barracks, complete with a dining room, are scheduled to be available for rental in the fall. For more information, call (817) 645-4215 or go to www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/cleburne.
CO-OP PEOPLE
Outstanding Photo
Hamilton County Electric Cooperative member Howard Cheek recently won The Nature Conservancy’s third annual photo contest, which attracted 14,000 entries from around the world. Some 19,000 people voted for his photo of a female cardinal making a water-hole landing. Cheek, who lives on six acres between Kempner and Lampasas, encourages birds and other wildlife to come to him. He’s built a pond accentuated with mondo grass, flowers and fruit trees, and he regularly feeds visiting birds. He can photograph the wildlife through his thin-paned office window. To see more of his work, go to www.howardcheekphotography.com or www.nature.org/texas.
WHO KNEW?
Two hundred thousand U.S. households are “off the grid,” meaning they are not connected to electric power lines. Although still a very small percentage of households in the United States, these go-it-aloners have been growing by one-third every year for the past decade, according to New Scientist magazine.
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