Missionary of Light
(Reprinted with permission from the February 2009 issue of Rural Electric Magazine © National Rural Electric Cooperative Association)

The first person electric co-op engineer Mike Callies met upon arriving in the painfully poor village of Pignon, Haiti (shown at left), in 1998 was a businessman/ minister/social activist named Caleb Lucien. At the time, Callies was helping a church group from southern Minnesota build a house in the community.

“He asked me what I did for a living, and when I told him that I worked for an electric utility, he just about flipped,” recalls Callies, senior engineering technician at Heartland Services LLC, a joint subsidiary of Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative in Jordan, Minn., and Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association in nearby Rockford. “He implored, ‘I need you. I’ve got this donated generator; my intention is to distribute electricity throughout the town. Can you help me?’”

Seven years of fundraising and collecting used electrical equipment later, Callies stood beside Lucien, board president of Cooperative Electrique de Pignon (COOPELEP), on the night of February 22, 2005, as the Haitian’s dream came true. That was when a dozen streetlights blinked on for the first time.

“We lit up the town square,” recounts Callies. “None of the houses had been wired yet.”

Today, 500 homes, businesses, and churches in the village boast electric lights. The 275-kV diesel engine that generates power gets fired up every evening for about six
hours and all day on Sundays for religious services.

The Pignon electrification project was organized by the NRECA International Foundation— an arm of NRECA International Programs founded in 1985 that partners with electric co-ops in the United States and others to bring power and economic development to rural areas overseas. Callies has been there every step of the way, making 10 trips to the central plateau of Haiti, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic. His latest effort involved sending a pole trailer, an effort inspired by a June 2008 feature in RE Magazine.

An employee of Sauber Manufacturing in Virgil, Ill., read the article “Family Ties,” which discussed how rural electric systems in other nations have benefited from “sister” partnerships with U.S. electric co-ops, and decided his company—a manufacturer of utility trailers— should make a contribution as part of the firm’s 40th anniversary celebration.

Sauber Manufacturing President Jim Sauber then contacted Ingrid Hunsicker, manager of the NRECA International Foundation, and last July she e-mailed project coordinators worldwide. Callies and linemen at Minnesota Valley Electric who had volunteered in Pignon quickly saw that a pole trailer would be a terrific addition to COOPELEP’s line construction equipment. Callies got back to Hunsicker and then worked with Sauber Manufacturing Sales Manager Mike Blaser on design specifications. The trailer was shipped in December.

 “What a great way to help our international neighbors enjoy the elevated standard of living and education that electricity can provide,” emphasizes Sauber.

Adds Blaser: “We hope that this will become an annual commitment and also encourage participation by other electric industry leaders, not only with equipment donations but also cash contributions.”

The NRECA International Foundation is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, and all contributions are tax-deductible. For more information, go to nrecafoundation.coop