DOBSON – Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation employee Jeff Nixon, senior apparatus technician, recently coordinated donations to provide lineman’s climbing gear for a lineman in Uganda.
Nixon explained that the need came to him through fellow church member and missionary Brian Tyndall. Tyndall and his wife, Carla, of Ennice, are the founders of Uttermost Evangelism. In January 2020, Nixon traveled with Tyndall and others from their church to Guyana to help with church construction and training for local pastors.
Each year, Tyndall travels to Africa to conduct outdoor crusades at different locations approved by the governments there. Locals from those areas assist Tyndall in setting up the equipment he needs for the crusades. Tyndall reached out to Nixon early in 2021 before his trip to Uganda to let him know a man named Charles, one of the people who works part-time with him in Africa, had recently taken a lineman’s job with a Uganda power company.
Due to limited resources in the country, it was difficult to acquire the climbing equipment Charles needed for his job. Tyndall, knowing that Nixon works at Surry-Yadkin as a lineman, reached out to him for ideas on where to find the tools.
“I was excited to be able to help Brian get the tools that a brother lineman in Uganda would need to start his career in line work,” Nixon said.
The challenge was putting the project together in just a week, so that Tyndall could take the tools with him to give to Charles when he arrived in Uganda.
Nixon shared the project and his intention to provide the tools for Charles with his supervisor, manager and a few co-workers at Surry-Yadkin. “They all loved the idea and were eager to offer the funds needed to buy the tools with their own money,” Nixon said. “You can always count on all of my co-workers to help out when there is a need for assistance, whether it is for a co-worker, co-op member, food pantry, or community need.”
Nixon coordinated with friend and business owner Tim Sawyers, operator of AGP Utility Tool & Repair, a local business that Surry-Yadkin works with for equipment and service. Sawyers donated the climbing boots and quoted the prices for the other tools needed. Sawyers reached out to Wade Summerlin with Utility Service Agency in Charlotte, one of his equipment suppliers, and Summerlin was able to provide some of the tools needed through his company.
The remainder of the tools needed were paid for by Nixon and his co-workers and delivered a few days before Tyndall headed to Africa.
“It was a great way to help people like Charles in other countries develop and maintain their country’s infrastructure and provide the benefits of electricity and a better quality of life, along with meeting their spiritual needs,” Nixon said.
Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation, founded in 1940, is a not-for-profit, member-owned Touchstone Energy cooperative serving about 27,000 member-accounts in five counties — Surry, Yadkin, Stokes, Wilkes and Forsyth counties. The corporation’s mission is to provide service that powers local rural communities. For more information about Surry-Yadkin EMC, visit www.syemc.com.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com