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Powerful Living


GETAWAY GIVEAWAY


GRAND PRIZE WINNER will receive a two-night


stay at Chasing Fireflies, a luxury cabin in beautiful Broken Bow, Okla. and your 2016 Best of OKL


“Best Romantic Getaway!”


Putting America’s Best Foot Forward


GUEST COLUMN S


ince 1962, electric cooperatives across the United States—working through the International Programs division of their national trade association, NRECA—have


Sheldon Peterson


Chief Executive Offi cer, CFC


provided more than 100 million residents in 40-plus developing countries with access to safe, reliable, affordable and life-changing electric service. The National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) has been a long-time supporter of these overseas electrifi cation efforts and this year began providing matching grants to electric cooperative statewide organizations—like the Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives— that sponsor international projects. We believe these matching grants will enable many more electric cooperative volunteers, including those from the Sooner State, to participate in NRECA International endeavors. I have been fortunate to see fi rsthand how lives in foreign countries are


SECOND PLACE WINNER will receive an Apple watch!


THIRD PLACE WINNER Sherry Wilkerson received a gift basket from the Made in Oklahoma Coalition!


To enter, visit www.okl.coop


and sign up for OKL’s E-newsletter! *Rules and regulations will apply. See website for details.


changed through electrifi cation. In 2015, I journeyed to three northeast Guatemalan villages where a power distribution system was built from scratch by electric cooperative linemen from Arkansas and Indiana. As a former general manager of an electric cooperative in Wisconsin, I’ve always been humbled by what electric cooperative lineworkers can do under the most adverse conditions. But I was truly amazed at what they did in these isolated locations with limited equipment. The mountainsides in this part of Central America are incredibly steep, and the volunteer cooperative linemen didn’t have the benefi t of line trucks to string the system. They did it by hand. Of course, witnessing the end result on the faces of the people being helped was profound. Everyone in the communities I spoke with was so grateful to have electricity. I saw homes with lightbulbs, microwave ovens, maybe a radio, but hardly any refrigeration and no TVs. In one, a family was very proud of their electric corn mill that eliminated the need to grind corn by hand, which reduced fi ve hours of work down to 15 minutes! The people I met were also quite resourceful. One man had purchased an air compressor to do tire repair work, so in addition to improving his quality of life, electricity also brought about a business opportunity. I asked one family about the affordability of electricity, and learned that they spent less on their electric bill than they did on candles to light their home. So for that household, electric service was economically benefi cial. For me personally, there’s no way to fully explain the emotions you feel


when someone fl ips a switch and watches lights come on for the fi rst time—it’s positively a life-altering experience. My days are brightened to know there are children in rural Guatemala who, decades from now, will recount the moment when the lights came on and note that it was made possible by electric cooperative linemen from the United States. That’s goodwill ambassadorship at its best.


Created and owned by America’s electric cooperative network, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC)—a nonprofi t fi - nance cooperative with approximately $24 billion in assets—provides capital and industry-leading fi nancial products to serve the needs of its members, America’s 900-plus not-for-profit, consumer-controlled electric cooperatives.


JUNE 2017 5


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