CHELCO employees Tommie Gipson, information technology manager, and Marc Hart, operations supervisor, have earned Touchstone Energy’s Power and Hope Award, which honors exemplary cooperative employees.
“We are proud to have Tommie and Marc here at CHELCO,” CEO Steve Rhodes said. “Not only do they do valuable work for the cooperative, they (also) spend their free time working hard to help others.”
Hart, of Baker, joined the Habitat for Humanity Board in 2007 and became its president in 2009, a position he held for two years.
“Marc always recruited volunteers to work on the Habitat for Humanity homes along with putting many hard manual days in himself,” said Theresa Imdieke, Walton County Habitat for Humanity’s executive director. “He truly has made a lasting impact on our organization.”
Imdieke said she appreciates Hart and Gipson's contributions.
“Tommie Gipson and his wife, Kathy, are two of the longest-standing volunteers that we have ever had,” she said. “They first became involved when Kathy's co-worker was going to receive a house.” Since then, Tommie has worked on every home that Walton County’s Habitat for Humanity has built, spending most Saturdays at the jobsite.
CHELCO, a nonprofit electric distribution cooperative, nominated Gipson and Hart for the award in January and presented it to them at the all-employee meeting in May.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Baker man among CHELCO's Power and Hope Award recipients