Canadians Show Their Appreciation With School Visit

After Tropical Storm Isabel’s ill winds barged through Baltimore County and cut power for thousands, Randy Kent and his crew from Waterloo North Hydro suited up, bid good-bye to their families, and headed out to help. In their hulking bucket trucks, they drove south for hours – from their homes in Ontario, Canada, all the way to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium – and began a grueling weeklong rescue mission of helping to restore electricity to storm-ravaged Baltimore County.

Jeanina Nozemack’s third-graders at Pinewood Elementary School didn’t know Randy Kent or the linemen in his power company crew. But for days around them, they saw the hard, often-dangerous work put in by power company crews from across the eastern United States, all come to help them, to put the lights back on in their Timonium school and homes. During an assignment to write about the storm in their journals, the children wrote about the power crews, and wrote that they wanted to say thanks. Teacher Nozemack was moved when she read her students’ entries, and so took the thank you letters and journal entries to the nearby Fairgrounds. There, with the help of BGE, the letters were passed to the crew that had restored electricity to Pinewood Elementary – the worn and weary crew of Waterloo North Hydro from Ontario, Canada.

Kent and his men were touched, too, by this simple act of kindness. Seeking to return the good feeling, they took time off on a recent sunny day and rolled their hulking bucket trucks up to the front door of Pinewood Elementary School and said to Nina Nozemack’s third-graders, “Thank you.”

“When we got those letters, well, it really made our trip down here worth it,” said Kent, who served as spokesman for the other linemen. “These kids really made us feel appreciated, and we wanted to show them how much it meant to us to get their notes and cards.”

The visit from the Waterloo North Hydro trucks was festive and fun. Pinewood Principal Kathy Arnold held her breath during a ride aloft in one of the “cherry-picker” buckets, and Waterloo North workers doled out snacks given them by relief organizations and thankful Baltimore County citizens. “This was really special for our students,” said Arnold as students squealed to see their principal take a ride in the spidery bucket arm. “You all really got hit (by Isabel) down here,” said Kent, “and we would hope that if something like this ever happened to us, you’d be right there to help, too.” But after a while, Kent and his crew packed up their equipment and said good-bye. The point had been made – and likely not soon lost on Ms. Nozemack’s third-graders – the one about how one good turn deserves another.

The students filed back into the school and Ms. Nozemack recomposed her students. They had to more class work to do. And Randy Kent and his crew and their bucket trucks rumbled down Rickswood Road, rounded a corner and disappeared.
They had more lights to turn on.

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Story and Photos by Charles Herndon Communications Officer