In my role working for your electric cooperatives, I’m on the road a lot. Time constraints demand that most of those trips are predominantly traveled on our interstate highways, but when I can, I prefer to take the back roads. Those routes allow me to better see my home state and the rural communities that electric cooperatives serve.
Not too long ago, I white-knuckled my way up I-95 to a meeting in Raleigh and faced the intimidating 18-wheelers that occupy those miles of asphalt. For the drive home, I decided to take U.S. Highway 1.
I soon found myself near the town of McBee in Chesterfield County, where many Lynches River Electric Cooperative members live. When I was a boy, my paternal grandfather would take me there to pick peaches. Back then, the state’s roads were dense with fruit stands. However, in his stubbornness, Granddaddy refused to buy from the stands. He wanted to go out into their patch and pluck our purchase straight off the tree’s crown.
As that memory ripened, my drive took me into Fairfield Electric Cooperative territory, near the town of Elgin. The story of how Elgin got its name is one of my favorites.
For 55 years, it was known as Blaney in honor of the railroad executive who helped establish the depot there. However, in 1962, its citizens voted to change the name after the Elgin Watch Company committed to build a plant there. To them, it was worth it. That one industry helped rebirth the town and brought new jobs, new residents and new infrastructure.
I also thought about how this route had changed throughout my lifetime. The road used to cut through countless acres of row crops, reminding me of how rural electrification had helped turn humble farms into sophisticated agribusinesses. In some places, those pastures have been replaced by bedroom communities and strip malls. It’s harder now to find meat-and-three diners with menus that everyone in town knows by heart. If you’re looking for a biscuit nowadays, sadly, you are probably getting it from a chain restaurant.
As I drive through, it’s not difficult to see some of the challenges these communities are facing. Shuttered businesses and deteriorating houses serve as the hallmarks of an economically depressed community: high unemployment, few opportunities for younger generations, and too many people burdened by poverty. That’s why I’m glad electric cooperatives serve many of these areas. If they can help it, they won’t let these communities get left behind. It’s in their DNA to invest in their hometowns.
Aiken Electric, for example, is among eight South Carolina electric cooperatives that deliver high-speed, broadband internet in and around their service territory, transforming the way those communities communicate, learn and work.
All electric cooperatives know the impact of investing in education. That’s why they award college scholarships, send high school students on once-in-a-lifetime trips to Washington, D.C., and provide free resources to teachers. Broad River Electric and several other cooperatives also fulfill that promise by offering Bright Ideas grants that fund innovative projects and learning initiatives in local classrooms.
Electric cooperatives step up for their communities in times of great individual need or crisis. Through programs like Operation Round Up, cooperatives donate to food banks, homeless shelters and veterans’ organizations. With their Pay It Forward program, Laurens Electric randomly selects an employee each month to choose a local nonprofit organization. That charity then receives a $500 donation from the cooperative.
Electric cooperatives like Santee Electric invest heavily in economic development initiatives like industrial parks and spec buildings that entice companies and bring jobs to their communities. And these days, we don’t even have to change the name of the town.
The next time you can, I encourage you to take a back road for your own trip down memory lane. You might even look up which electric cooperative serves that area and find out what it is doing to help drive their communities into a better future.
Mike Couick is president and CEO of The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, Inc., the statewide association of not-for-profit electric cooperatives.