Employees of Murfreesboro Electric Department along with members of International Brotherhood
of Electric Workers Local 429 recently raised more than $2,000 for the American Cancer
Society by selling T-shirts at the annual Tennessee Valley Lineman Rodeo.
For the fifth consecutive year, MED linemen competed in the regional rodeo where line crews from
across the Tennessee Valley demonstrated the skills of their trade. The event included competitions
such as the Hurt Man Rescue and the Lightning Arrestor Change.
Each year, MED has created a t-shirt design for the competition. This year, however, they decided
to use the rodeo as a way to raise money for cancer research. “We wanted to use our T-shirts to
help others,” says Renita Haley, service truck driver for MED. “We recently lost a lineman to cancer,
and almost all of us have lost family members and close friends. We decided to turn our shirts
pink and use the slogan ‘Climbing for a Cure.’” Renita has worked as the only female truck driver at
MED for the past eight years.
The crew raised over $2,000 at the rodeo and will soon present a check to the American Cancer
Society. “We didn’t realize it would be this big,” says Jim Fuller, MED safety director. “We are getting
requests from other utilities for our shirts, and we have people from the community interested
in them too.”
According to the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org), 12 million Americans are currently
living with cancer, and it is estimated that half of all men and one-third of all women will develop
cancer in their lifetimes.
Murfreesboro Electric's General Manager Steve Sax says he was excited to see employees take their rodeo involvement to a higher level. “Our employees have a lot of pride in how well they perform at the lineman
rodeo each year,” says Sax. “But it’s more than a competition for them, more than a training
exercise. It’s an opportunity to fellowship with and support their fellow line workers, and to show
the strength of the public power industry through community service. I couldn’t be more proud of
our team.
