Texas Co-op Presents First Power & Hope Awards

In a true reflection of the cooperative spirit, two employees of Swisher Electric Cooperative (Tulia, Texas) were honored recently with Touchstone Energy Power & Hope Employee Recognition Awards. Swisher Electric is the first Touchstone Energy co-op to implement the program.

Crew chief Santos Basaldua and lineman Joe McDowell received the awards for their heroic efforts in assisting a woman injured in a car accident. The pair was on duty in a co-op service truck when they passed a piece of debris in the road.

Recognizing the hazard it posed to other motorists, they stopped the truck and went back to retrieve it. While doing so, they noticed a vehicle several hundred feet off the road with its emergency flashers on.

Taking a closer look, they saw a woman inside the vehicle bleeding badly. The woman had been struck in the head by a piece of steel that had fallen off a passing truck and crashed through the windshield. Basaldua and McDowell called for help and remained with the woman until an ambulance arrived.

At a ceremony honoring the two men that included the county sheriff and the woman involved in the accident, who recovered from her injuries, Swisher Electric CEO Charles Castleberry presented the men with custom-made pocket knives engraved with their initials and the Power & Hope logo.

"I wanted to honor these men for their life-saving efforts, and what better way to do that than with the Power & Hope Award,” said Castleberry.

The accident victim, Glenda Birkenfeld, is a member of Swisher Electric.

The Power & Hope Employee Recognition Program gives co-ops a way to honor employees who respond extraordinarily to aid fellow co-ops and members in challenging times. While the recognition program was conceived on the heels of the 2005 hurricane season, the award is not limited to aid provided during natural disasters.

The award is intended to be a national honor, but is designed to be implemented locally. Once a recipient is selected by co-op management, a variety of design concepts, available online, can be applied to plaques, shirts, decals, patches, lapel pins or any other appropriate medium.

“The efforts of these two men really exemplify the intent behind this award,” said Zac Perkins, safety coordinator at Swisher Electric. “Their actions reinforce the dedication we have to our members and our community,” he added.