Grady Electric Membership Corporation

A MEMBER OWNED ENERGY PROVIDER

Grady EMC goes to Guatemala

Recently, three Grady EMC linemen volunteered to travel to Guatemala. The purpose of their trip was to assist in the task of building power lines to rugged, remote areas in Guatemala. The three individuals were Travis Duren, Trey Gainous, and Justin Harrison.

They teamed up with other EMC volunteers from across our nation. This is part of the NRECA's (National Rural Electric Cooperative Association) International Foundation Guatemala Project. While in Guatemala, they worked in partnership with the Municipality of Ixcan. They built eight (8) miles of distribution lines to connect the village of San Jose La 20 to the main substation in Playa Grande. Since there was no mechanical equipment to do this work, all work had to be done manually. This included digging holes for poles, setting, and climbing poles to set transformers and necessary hardware, and pulling wire into the air by hand.

These volunteers from the United States also helped train the local crews in safety practices and advance techniques. This project benefited approximately 3,000 people.

Travis, Trey, and Justin returned to the United States with a renewed feeling of just how blessed we are as Americans. They also noted they would be willing to return and assist again.

Grady EMC is fortunate to have been represented by such fine young men and for the work they accomplished for underprivileged people. Travis, Trey, and Justin left for Guatemala on September 27 and returned to the United States on October 12.