YEC celebrates 50,000th customer

New Fort Mill resident receives $1,000 electric credit.

YEC's Vic Wilform with member Claudia Mady
Vic Wil­form, a tech­ni­cian with the York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive shares a laugh with Clau­dia Mady, the coop­er­a­tive’s 50,000th cus­tomer. Wil­form hooked up Mady’s elec­tric ser­vice. Pho­to: Don Wor­thing­ton

When Clau­dia Mady got the call she was the 50,000th cus­tomer to sign up for ser­vices from the York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, she won­dered if it was a scam.

After all, the 71-year-old Mady had not even fin­ished mov­ing from her Indi­an Trail, N.C., home to her new house in the Mul­ber­ry Vil­lage area off Regent Park­way in Fort Mill.

Mady called the coop­er­a­tive’s office on U.S. 21, where she had just arranged ser­vices. A rep­re­sen­ta­tive said she was­n’t aware of any spe­cial recog­ni­tion and encour­aged Mady to call the York Coun­ty Sher­if­f’s Office.

She did.

But before a detec­tive could call her back, some­one from the coop­er­a­tive called. Yes, it was legit­i­mate, she was the fir­m’s 50,000th cus­tomer. And yes, they want­ed to say, “Thank you.”

“Then,” Mady said, “I got excit­ed.”

On Tues­day, the coop­er­a­tive did say, “Thank you,” giv­ing Mady a $1,000 cred­it on her elec­tric bill and a check for $500 to donate to her favorite char­i­ty.

Mady is par­tial to The Heart Fund and the Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety, but she asked Paul Basha, pres­i­dent and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of the coop­er­a­tive, if there were any local “needs that were being over­looked.” Mady want­ed to make the dona­tion to some­one in her new com­mu­ni­ty.

Basha told her about the work the Fort Mill Care Cen­ter does, espe­cial­ly its focus on help­ing those in need with their pow­er bills.

“Then that’s where it’s going,” Mady said.

The gen­eros­i­ty and pro­fes­sion­al­ism of the coop­er­a­tive impressed Mady, affirm­ing that she was mak­ing the right move.

“This is a new home, a new oppor­tu­ni­ty and a new begin­ning for me,” she said.

Mady had been plan­ning a move for about four years after her hus­band died. Her daugh­ter, Rebec­ca Stitt, had moved to the Steele Creek com­mu­ni­ty out­side Char­lotte, and Mady want­ed to be clos­er to her.

Her hous­ing search was sim­ple: She want­ed a small ranch home so she did­n’t have to climb steps. It had to have a garage and it had to be near stores and oth­er ser­vices – she did­n’t want to dri­ve on the free­way to get to things.

Mady found sev­er­al pos­si­ble homes, but was out­bid each time. Then her real estate agent got notice of the Mul­ber­ry Vil­lage home one morn­ing. By 5 p.m. Mady had sub­mit­ted an offer, and this time she was not out­bid.

To hook up its newest cus­tomer, the coop­er­a­tive turned to one of its most expe­ri­enced tech­ni­cians. Vic Wil­form has been installing, dis­con­nect­ing and restor­ing elec­tric pow­er for the coop­er­a­tive for 43 years. He plans to retire next year.

Once Wil­form turns on the pow­er, Mady will start unpack­ing her box­es and start­ing her new life. A for­mer librar­i­an, Mady plans to con­tin­ue read­ing news­pa­pers and books – “my love of life.”

She also described her­self as a “great vol­un­teer per­son,” assist­ing those who need “help along the way.”

“It’s time for me to find new nich­es now.”

BY DON WORTHINGTON
dworthington@heraldonline.com

Source: The Her­ald