Now they’re electrical safety (and co-op) Beliebers

For one day they became Ener­giz­ers, Kilo­watts, Trans­form­ers, Insu­la­tors and Con­duc­tors. Who knows, maybe one day they’ll become York Elec­tric linework­ers, now that they know their way around a pow­er pole.

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Buck­et rides gave stu­dents a bird’s eye view of YEC’s York office—and a few laughs. Savan­nah Math­is, shown wear­ing a wire coil as a mous­tache, asked her class­mates in the buck­et, “Can you see Piz­za Hut from up there?” On the seri­ous side, a view of a bird in con­tact with live pow­er lines sparked imag­i­na­tions. YEC ser­vice­man Kei­th Robin­son warned kids to stay away from downed lines. “If there’s a prob­lem, get away from it and keep oth­er peo­ple away from it, too. Call us or call 911.” Pho­tos: Wal­ter All­read

About 120 fourth-graders from Cot­ton Belt and Hick­o­ry Grove-Sharon ele­men­tary schools got a charge vis­it­ing YEC April 23 for Safe­ty Day. Form­ing five teams with elec­tric­i­ty-themed names, they donned col­or-cod­ed safe­ty hats, tried on linework­er gear and lis­tened as co-op employ­ees brought class­room lessons to life. As Hick­o­ry Grove-Sharon teacher Juli­et Ben­nett said, “Every­thing they talked about is impor­tant to what we teach. For stu­dents, being able to put them­selves into these sit­u­a­tions is real­ly good.”

Co-op tour guides took the teach­ers and their teams through five learn­ing sta­tions, includ­ing buck­et truck rides and equip­ment dis­plays plus pole-top res­cue and a minia­ture “live wire” safe­ty demo. Stu­dents strapped on safe­ty belts to pose as line­men for pho­tos and lat­er showed their smarts in a rapid-fire co-op quiz. Sam­ple ques­tion:

Who owns the co-op?

A) Stock­hold­ers
B) Your par­ents
C) The gov­ern­ment
D) Justin Bieber

If you answered B, good for you! Like the teach­ers’ bright young charges, now you’re a co-op Believ­er, too.

Sor­ry, Beliebers!
Relat­ed Top­ics:
Safe­ty demon­stra­tions 
Safe­ty demon­stra­tion request form