For an energy company that services more than 35,000 customers across three states, shutting down offices for a day is a pretty big deal.

But, for Midwest Energy and Communications, doing so in order to serve the community was well worth it.

On Thursday, the electric, internet and propane utility company organized its second annual “Changing the Landscape Day of Service,” shutting down two offices in Paw Paw and Cassopolis in order for its employees to pitch in on more than a dozen service projects throughout the company’s service area. Midwest’s location dispatch center was kept open in order to respond and attend to customers.

Around 130 volunteers, including 15 contractors from the Paric Cooperation and Mint City Trees, divided into 11 groups to serve 18 areas across Berrien and Cass counties. Employees were paid like a regular work day, but had the opportunity to help out their community.

Among the areas reached was the nonprofit Pregnancy Care Center in Niles.

Brooklyn Jackson, the office manager at the nonprofit, said the organization has a staff of five people, whose priority is providing education and care for the men, women and children who utilize the facility. She said that while staff always keeps the facility clean, it can be nice to have an extra hand to complete those deep cleaning chores.

So, when Midwest called the nonprofit and asked if they could volunteer to clean the facility, Jackson said the office was ecstatic to get the extra help.

By 9 a.m. Thursday morning, seven volunteers from Midwest Energy were ready to help out. Volunteers vacuumed, dusted and organized inside, and weeded, power washed and cleaned up yard debris outside the facility, at 527 E. Main St. Midwest Employees worked until 3 p.m.

The project idea was formulated when Midwest Energy & Communications broke ground on its new building at 60590 Decatur Road, Cassopolis, last year. In lieu of a groundbreaking ceremony, the company decided to go out into the community and make a difference, with employees spending a day making improvements to places like the Cass County Fairgrounds or Russ Forest Park.

“What better way to celebrate belonging to a new building in a community than planning a day of service?” said Patty Nowlin, the vice president for corporate communications. “We didn’t want to do a self-congratulatory groundbreaking ceremony.”

Rather than celebrating the opening of the building in August with a grand opening or party, Nowlin said the company decided to give back to the community once more.

“This is a continuation of our dedication to serving the community as one of our core principles,” said Amy Pales, another spokesperson with the company. “This is a unique opportunity for us to put feet on the ground and physically make a difference in the community.”

Midwest’s first Day of Service prompted other companies to step up and help their community, too. Last year, employees from Mint City Trees saw Midwest volunteers working. The Mint City Trees employees then decided to help Midwest out.

This year, Mint City Trees again joined the corporation in a Day of Service. Additionally, Paric Corporation, a construction firm based in St. Louis that has been completing construction on Midwest’s new facility, decided it would also participate.

Employees who spent their work day helping at various sites shared similar sentiments about time out of the office helping the community.

Shellie Raymond is an accounting representative for Midwest and has worked for the company for 18 years. On Thursday, she was among the volunteers breaking a sweat to deep clean the Pregnancy Care Center. By 11 a.m., Raymond had dusted all the base boards and was tackling cleaning the bathrooms.

“It feels good giving back to the community,” Raymond said. “It’s also great team building, because you get to work with people from other departments.”

Outside the building, Greg Dabideen and Jeremy Haas yanked weeds from the Care Center’s landscaping.

“It feels good to get out of the office,” Haas said.

For Jackson and other staff members at the Pregnancy Care Center, showing off a care facility deep cleaned inside and out was a nice feeling. With about 80 people serviced in the month of September alone, staff said it was nice having an extra hand to make the facility look its best.

Another location that received some tender loving care on Thursday was Dowagiac’s Patrick Hamilton Elementary School. A team of employees spent the morning and afternoon doing some touch-ups to the building, including weeding the outdoor gardens, trimming bushes, and painting small footprints in the sidewalk leading up to the school’s front door.

However, the team’s largest task was making over the teacher’s lounge. Employees cleaned and repainted the room’s walls, installed some new light fixtures and, biggest of all, installed new furniture, donated by Woodlands Behavioral Health.

Helping with the makeover was Kerri Wade, an employee with Midwest’s Human Resources Department who has been with the energy company for 20 years, she said.

“These educators are teaching our future leaders, and maybe even future Midwest employees,” Wade said. “Whatever we can do to make their jobs easier, the better it is for our community.”

Wade came up with designs for the new breakroom, drawing off her experience helping designers come up with plans for the company’s new Cassopolis headquarters.

“It involved a lot of Pinteresting, too” Wade said about the Pat Ham project.

Getting a chance to improve Patrick Hamilton is something particularly important to Wade, a lifelong resident of the Dowagiac area. The Midwest employee is a former student of the elementary school, and she, her husband and their children all graduated from the district.

“This is the same community that has educated our family, so to have the ability to give back to it is awesome,” she said.

A project leader for the service day determined where there was a need in the community.

Nonprofits and places that serve the community were a top priority.

In addition to the Pregnancy Care Center and Patrick Hamilton, volunteers visited Arthur Dodd County Park, Vandalia Community Garden, Fitch Camp, Cassopolis High School, Union Shriners Club and Beckwith Theatre.

The company also donated $200 in nonperishable food and processed meat to seven local food pantries in Marcellus, Cassopolis, Dowagiac and Edwardsburg.

For Nowlin and the team at Midwest, showing the corporation cares was the goal.

“We have got willing people ready to roll up their sleeves and sometimes that is all you need to affect a bigger change,” Nowlin said.