Barry Electric teaches safety with POWERtown program
Barry Electric Cooperative hosted the POWERtown program at area schools to teach fifth graders about power line safety. Above, Barry Electric's James Gray speaks to Southwest School students.
March 4, 2020
Caden Swearingen
On February 21, Barry Electric Cooperative finished with the last school in their service area of teaching students about power line safety.
Southwest Middle School was the last school to host the POWERtown demonstration. POWERtown is a program that was used by the cooperative years ago and was since brought back after Barry Electric leadership decided it was important for kids to learn.
“All schools were great to work with, and I feel like it’s a great age to really bring power line safety to their attention,” said Laura Holycross, Barry Electric Cooperative membership services coordinator. The actual POWERtown program used to demonstrate is 20 years old, but it’s still a great representation of the dangers that are associated with power lines, according to Holycross. Along with power line safety, they also touch on low voltage electric safety and energy efficiency.
“We also take the opportunity to talk about who we are and what it means to be a member of a cooperative to encourage our youth to take ownership in Barry Electric Cooperative and it as a possible employer in the future,” said Holycross.
James Gray, an equipment operator, and Laura Holycross are the two in charge of the presentations. They visit each of the four schools in Barry Electric’s service area. Holycross noted, “Students are really good at paying attention and have lots of good questions. Probably their favorite part, other then actually seeing electric arcs, is when we dress one of the students up in lineman’s personal protective equipment and have them pretend they are working on the lines.”
Fifth graders respond well to the demonstration, Gray and Holycross see that first hand now. The demonstration could potentially prevent serious injury or even a fatality. Barry Electric is also nearing completion of a larger scale LIVEline demonstration that will soon be available as training for high school students, emergency responders and the public.
“We always take safety very seriously here at Barry Electric Cooperative, and as part of our cooperative principles, we want to make sure that we are as involved in the community as we can be while offering reliable and affordable electricity and goBEC fiber internet,” said Holycross.
Barry Electric plans to continue the program next year and visit all fifth grade students in the service territory next school year again.
Caden Swearingen
On February 21, Barry Electric Cooperative finished with the last school in their service area of teaching students about power line safety.
Southwest Middle School was the last school to host the POWERtown demonstration. POWERtown is a program that was used by the cooperative years ago and was since brought back after Barry Electric leadership decided it was important for kids to learn.
“All schools were great to work with, and I feel like it’s a great age to really bring power line safety to their attention,” said Laura Holycross, Barry Electric Cooperative membership services coordinator. The actual POWERtown program used to demonstrate is 20 years old, but it’s still a great representation of the dangers that are associated with power lines, according to Holycross. Along with power line safety, they also touch on low voltage electric safety and energy efficiency.
“We also take the opportunity to talk about who we are and what it means to be a member of a cooperative to encourage our youth to take ownership in Barry Electric Cooperative and it as a possible employer in the future,” said Holycross.
James Gray, an equipment operator, and Laura Holycross are the two in charge of the presentations. They visit each of the four schools in Barry Electric’s service area. Holycross noted, “Students are really good at paying attention and have lots of good questions. Probably their favorite part, other then actually seeing electric arcs, is when we dress one of the students up in lineman’s personal protective equipment and have them pretend they are working on the lines.”
Fifth graders respond well to the demonstration, Gray and Holycross see that first hand now. The demonstration could potentially prevent serious injury or even a fatality. Barry Electric is also nearing completion of a larger scale LIVEline demonstration that will soon be available as training for high school students, emergency responders and the public.
“We always take safety very seriously here at Barry Electric Cooperative, and as part of our cooperative principles, we want to make sure that we are as involved in the community as we can be while offering reliable and affordable electricity and goBEC fiber internet,” said Holycross.
Barry Electric plans to continue the program next year and visit all fifth grade students in the service territory next school year again.
