Company donates to Waldeck School after positive experience in community
A utility construction contractor has made a generous donation to Waldeck School in appreciation of the community’s positive attitude towards power line construction workers.
The cheque presentation of $7,000 by Forbes Bros Ltd. took place during a special assembly at Waldeck School, March 4.
Lindsay Stecy, an environmental specialist and community liaison representative at Forbes Bros Ltd., attended the assembly to make the presentation.
“We don’t work in an industry where everyone is super accepting of contractors always being around,” she said after the assembly. “Sometimes you’re the person who is not always welcomed with open arms, because you’re the strange person in town, and it was really wonderful to be received the way that we were as a company.”
The company has been responsible for building and erecting about 200 transmission towers along a section of SaskPower’s new power line from the Pasqua switching station east of Moose Jaw to the switching station west of Swift Current. After completion this transmission line will hook up to the new Chinook Power Station.
Forbes Bros Ltd. employees have been working on a section of the transmission line passing through the Rural Municipality (R.M.) of Excelsior No. 166 since last summer. The transmission towers were assembled and erected from July to September and thereafter crews started to string the line with the help of a helicopter.
“We’ve just finished construction about three weeks ago as far as everything got flown, all the wires in, everything is finished,” she said. “Now we’re in cleanup mode. So now we’re driving around and making sure that we’ve picked up everything off our right of ways, off the farmers’ properties, removing any of that stuff.”
The work was done by about 85 employees who have been crisscrossing the area in about 45 crew vehicles. There were also various other trucks with equipment and semis carrying steel. These activities took place at multiple locations at the same time and they were treated in a respectful and welcoming manner by area residents.
“Everyone was always friendly and waived at us,” she said. “People would stop and have conversations with us. The farmers would come out while we were doing construction and talk to us and no theft, no vandalism, no nothing, and that’s just something that we step back and said this community must have a lot of pride in it to not have any incidences.”
Stecy noted that the construction manager was “blown away” by how amazing the community was, and the company therefore wanted to do something to give recognition to this positive experience by their employees.
“The R.M. of Excelsior was a very special situation for us and we wanted to do something because of how good we felt about being here and how welcomed we were,” she said. “So this is a special circumstance for us, for sure.”
The company contacted the R.M. of Excelsior and it suggested that Forbes Bros Ltd. should talk to Waldeck School. The call to discuss a financial donation to the school took Principal Harv Martinez quite by surprise.
“It was pretty remarkable,” he recalled. “It’s a once in a career phone call where somebody calls you up and says ‘Hey, we’re looking to give you some money, what can we help with?’ And it just so happened that this was the right time for us and it was perfect timing for them and everything just kind of aligned at the right time. So we’re lucky to be on the receiving end, that’s for sure.”
The school has started a project to raise funds for an outdoor electronic message board. Last year’s Grade 9 graduating class suggested it as a legacy gift to the school. Usually the group suggesting an idea would collect the funds through various fundraisers before they graduate, but it was evident this suggestion would require more time to gather the necessary funds.
The company decided to fund the entire $7,000 cost of the project after Martinez provided them with the details.
“It kind of happened a little bit quicker than we anticipated with Forbes Bros getting involved,” he said. “The ability to display different community events, different school events, different motivational sayings and those kinds of things we thought would be pretty unique to have in front of the school, and now it’s come to life.”
The message board will be installed as soon as the ground has thawed sufficiently. For Martinez the best part of the company’s donation is that it is done in response to the kindness of the community.
“The school is on the receiving end of the gift, but the community is the one that is responsible for setting the tone, for the culture, for the respect, for the integrity, for the hospitality, for all of those things,” he said.
The neat part about the project is it’s going to benefit everyone. The village is going to be involved, the community is going to be involved, the school is going to be involved, and so everybody is reaping the benefits of their work, and we just happen to be the ones on the receiving end, which is pretty miraculous.”