When Penelec Operations Manager Karen Finney was looking for employee volunteers to staff the Live Wire Electrical Safety Trailer for the Cambria County Arts & Heritage Festival – held in Ebensburg, Pa. – she didn’t have to look far.

“The festival planning committee asked if Penelec could participate in this year’s event, and we didn’t want to disappoint them,” said Karen. “I reached out to three of our employees at Clearfield Service Center – Tom Whitehead, Troubleman Scheduled; Bobby Hawkins, Troubleman Scheduled; and Zach Czap, Line Construction & Maintenance – and they agreed to handle the request.”

What makes their participation especially significant is the fact that the festival was held over the weekend, meaning they were willing to give up time with their families to help educate our customers and other members of the public about the importance of electrical safety.

“Our line workers made the three-hour round trip from Clearfield Service Center to Ebensburg, giving up their free time to serve the community,” continued Karen. “The crew completed two demonstrations in front of about 80 festival attendees.”

Several local firefighters and EMS personnel – two of the core groups the electrical safety trailers were designed to reach – were in the audience during the safety trailer demonstrations.

During the demonstrations, Bobby and Zach donned all required personal protective equipment and operated the safety trailer, energizing conductors to show how electricity can travel through common objects. Tom served as the moderator for the event, explaining what is happening at each point of the presentation and responding to questions from the audience so the line workers can focus on safely operating the equipment.

“Tom did an outstanding job interacting with audience members and answering their questions in a thorough and easy to understand way,” Karen added.

Some members of the audience were local firefighters and emergency medical service (EMS) personnel, which are two of the core groups the electrical safety trailers were designed to reach.

“I cannot thank Tom, Bobby and Zach enough for their dedication to our company and to keeping our local communities safe,” said Karen. “In addition to being all-around good people, they are fully committed to our company’s core value of Safety.”