Midwest to ‘change the landscape’ with volunteer day

Published 11:49 am Monday, June 13, 2016

CASS COUNTY — Team Midwest will deploy 90-plus employees, organized into eight project teams, to various sites across Cass County in a “Changing the Landscape Day of Service.”

The Cassopolis and Paw Paw offices will be closed for the day as all employees participate in an unprecedented day of giving back. Calls will be answered through the business’s overflow call center, and crews will be deployed as needed to respond to outages and other
emergent situations.

“Midwest is literally changing the landscape at the intersection of M-60 and Decatur Road as we begin foundational work on our new headquarters building,” said Bob Hance, president/CEO. “This day is intended to bring our entire southwest Michigan employee family together to work on behalf of and recommit to this community that we’ve called home for nearly 80 years as we take this huge step into our future.”

From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. employee teams will work on planned projects across multiple sites, including the Cass County fairgrounds; Cassopolis Public Schools; Don Horne, Log Cabin and Clisbee Parks (Village of Cassopolis); Dr. T.K. Lawless and Russ Forest Parks (Cass County Parks); Cass County Council on Aging; Bair Lake Bible Camp; and Five Star. The day’s activities include cleaning, planting and mulching gardens; painting benches, picnic tables and sign posts; installing playground equipment; clearing trails; constructing accessibility ramps; serving food; and a myriad of other tasks. All employees will come back together for an end-of-the-day celebration at the new building site.

Midwest Energy Cooperative is a member-owned electric utility providing electric distribution and an assortment of energy and telecommunications programs and services to more than 35,000 customers in 11 counties in southern Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio.