From the front lines to power lines

Electric co-ops care about veterans.

Elec­tric co-ops have had a spe­cial affin­i­ty for vet­er­ans. Per­haps because they are both so close­ly aligned in out­look: focus­ing on ser­vice, mis­sion and coun­try. Maybe it’s because a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of vet­er­ans come from rur­al com­mu­ni­ties and return to their home­towns fol­low­ing active duty. Or, maybe it’s due to the shared work eth­ic of team­work, coop­er­a­tion and a “get it done” atti­tude. Most like­ly, it is all of the above.

Network of caring

At YEC, we are among more than 900 elec­tric co-ops across the coun­try to sup­port and hon­or our nation’s vet­er­ans of all gen­er­a­tions. We are grate­ful to have vet­er­ans with­in our ranks, and we are proud to serve vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies with­in our local com­mu­ni­ty. In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing safe, reli­able and afford­able elec­tric­i­ty, we care for the vet­er­an com­mu­ni­ty in a vari­ety of ways. Recent­ly, YEC had the plea­sure of hir­ing Brent Hollingsworth as a line­man. Brent served as Army Ranger, 1st Bat­tal­ion, for over eight years. We are cer­tain­ly thank­ful for his ser­vice to our coun­try and to YEC!

We are not alone in our efforts to hon­or and serve vet­er­ans. As part of our nation­al net­work of elec­tric coop­er­a­tives, span­ning 47 states and cov­er­ing 75 per­cent of the nation’s land­mass, there are count­less pro­grams that our fam­i­ly of co-ops has ini­ti­at­ed. At the nation­al lev­el, we sup­port the “Serve Our Co-ops; Serve Our Coun­try” pro­gram, a nation­wide ini­tia­tive aimed at employ­ing and hon­or­ing vet­er­ans, mil­i­tary-ser­vice mem­bers and their spous­es. This pro­gram came with a great vision of form­ing a nation­al coali­tion with the shared goal of hir­ing vet­er­ans into co-op jobs across rur­al and sub­ur­ban Amer­i­ca and set­ting them up for suc­cess in local com­mu­ni­ties.

Many programs, one purpose

At the local lev­el, elec­tric co-ops across Amer­i­ca have cre­at­ed their own pro­grams tai­lored to the unique needs of their com­mu­ni­ty. YEC, along with our fel­low S.C. elec­tric co-ops and like many elec­tric co-ops, spon­sored Hon­or Flights in 2012 at no charge enabling vet­er­ans from the Kore­an con­flict and WWII to vis­it war memo­ri­als in Wash­ing­ton, D.C..

A com­mit­ment to sup­port­ing and car­ing for vet­er­ans is appar­ent at every elec­tric co-op across this great nation. We at YEC are proud to be a part of the coop­er­a­tive net­work that hon­ors and sup­ports vet­er­ans of all ages, ranks and branch­es of the mil­i­tary. And, we look for­ward to hon­or­ing our vet­er­ans who are mem­bers of YEC on Fri­day, Novem­ber 10. Vet­er­ans who come into our offices with prop­er iden­ti­fi­ca­tion from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. will receive a $20 YEC bill cred­it and a spe­cial gift. Please help us spread the word to the vet­er­ans in your fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty.

We look for­ward to vis­it­ing with and hon­or­ing our vet­er­ans on Fri­day, Novem­ber 10.