Laurens Electric Cooperative’s December recipient of the employee Pay it Forward funds is Lineman Don Thompson.
Don paid forward $500 to help cover the insurance premiums of a co-worker and fellow lineman who has been medically unable to return to work for more than a year. At the same time, that co-worker’s wife has also been suffering her own medical problems.
Don said, “I want to make sure that when he does come back to work, he doesn’t return to a ton of debt.”
Employees – especially the line crews – at the co-op have conducted numerous independent fundraisers to help their ill co-worker.
“We (linemen) have to trust each other. Our lives are in each other’s hands every day out there,” said Don. “We take care of each other.”