A Legacy of Service

TVA Devotes Anniversary to Volunteerism

It all began on a Monday morning.

Some brandished buckets of paint and boxes of nails. Others processed bags of veggies and bushels of produce. Still others hefted bundles of tools, or set bottles of cleaning supplies to good use.

And for five days, at 37 nonprofit and civic organizations throughout the region, more than 750 TVA employees, contractors and retirees united for a singular purpose.

Serving those who call the Valley region home.

“I love helping the community – and that’s what TVA is all about,” Melissa Daniel, a business support representative at TVA’s Ackerman Combined Cycle Plant, said. “We’re a close-knit family and we’re just glad to be able to serve any way we can. We’re there to help.”

Under royal blue Mississippi skies, Daniel and two dozen coworkers from TVA’s Southwest region applied their handiwork to a Habitat for Humanity build just east of Starkville.

That energy lit up the region from sunup Monday to Friday afternoon, as TVA employees celebrated the enterprise’s 91st anniversary by investing their time and talents into a week of service that totaled nearly 2,800 volunteer hours.

At food pantries in Tupelo, Mississippi, and Decatur, Alabama, team members prepped produce and goods for distribution.

In Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, they packaged groceries at food pantries, applied fresh paint to nonprofit buildings, and passed out toys to children at a hospital.

They brightened up landscaping at the Ronald McDonald House of Knoxville and painted park benches in Kentucky.

In Jackson, Tennessee, they packed snack bags for kids. In Memphis, they worked with the Junior Achievement of Memphis and the Mid-South.

They pulled weeds, cleared brush and branches, tended to box gardens, and installed wiring at Habitat for Humanity homes.

All in the name of service to communities and people across the region.

“Service to others is foundational to TVA’s mission and, across the region, you can see the passion and dedication of our people supporting our communities,” Jeff Lyash, TVA President and CEO, said. “They bring their talents and energy to their work every day.

“It’s inspiring to see our teams share that energy with nonprofits and community organizations that, like TVA, uphold a mission to benefit others.”

Written into the earliest chapters of TVA’s story are guidelines on power production, flood control, river navigation, agricultural development, environmental stewardship, economic development and innovation – always with an aim of bettering life in the Valley region.

Those elements hold true today, even as TVA continues writing its story.

“TVA’s mission of service is timeless,” Lyash said. “It guides our path forward, and it places our focus on helping our region and its people thrive.”

TVA team members volunteered with the Ronald McDonald House of Greater Chattanooga, cleaning toys and tidying the family room.

Strengthening Partnerships

On Friday afternoon, TVA Technology and Innovation team members and colleagues dodged raindrops as they headed into the Ronald McDonald House of Greater Chattanooga.

A few folks cleaned toys and tidied a family room while others vacuumed halls and wiped counters in the kitchen.

TVA business specialist Bobbi Pope worked alongside them.

“Ronald McDonald House helped me as a single parent when my daughter had a heart condition,” Pope said. “She is now 29 and doing well. It’s a good organization and they are good people.”

The organization provides care and resources to families with children who are ill.

“TVA has been our partner since the beginning,” said AJ Davis, vice president of community engagement at Ronald McDonald House of Greater Chattanooga. “They make sure the community is whole, just like we make sure families are whole.”

Volunteers from TVA assemble curriculum binders for the Emerald Youth Foundation in Knoxville.

‘This Is Serving People’

Earlier in the week, north of Knoxville, TVA volunteers spent two days at DeBusk Family Boys and Girls Club, which provides after-school programming and summer enrichment programs.

Adam Swisher, a 12-year TVA employee, set out drop cloths on an activity room floor to prep for painting.

“I’m in facilities, so we do a lot of volunteering,” Swisher said. “I like helping the community.”

TVA water resources civil engineer Daniel Saint shook a 5-gallon bucket of white paint, which the volunteers would use to freshen the club’s learning space.

“Volunteering furthers TVA’s mission – for the people, by the people,” Saint said.

Nearby, water specialist Britta Lees taped wall edges for painting. In years past, she helped clean at the Ronald McDonald House, landscaped at the Phyllis Wheatley Center and assisted at Ijams Nature Center.

“I was excited to see that there were more planned events this year,” Lees said.

Technology and Innovation employee John Halter started at TVA as a forester with transmission rights of way. He leapt at the chance to help at the Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s our mission of service,” he said. “I love what we do with TVA and with our community.

“Any opportunity I get to come out and work with people, do physical labor, it keeps my mind clear.”

At Emerald Youth Foundation in Knoxville, TVA Natural Resources senior secretary Beth Cook prepped STEM and reading materials for kids while her colleagues placed art supplies into bags.

“I think it’s just great that TVA volunteers in the communities they serve,” Cook said. “The day is also about learning about other opportunities to give back.”

Volunteers from TVA applied a fresh coat of paint at DeBusk Family Boys and Girls Club in Knoxville.

‘I Believe in Giving Back’

At the Habitat for Humanity build in Mississippi, four TVA electricians from the Starkville Transmission Service Center worked on the home’s wiring.

This is the third in the Habitat for Humanity development, which will feature 30 affordable homes for Oktibbeha County residents.

For mechanical engineer Jeremy Brown, it was déjà vu.

As a kid growing up in Starkville, he spent his spring breaks volunteering for Habitat with his family. He even recognized some of the Habitat staff he worked with 10 years ago.

Volunteerism is also a family tradition for John Prevost, a technical service analyst at TVA’s Caledonia Combined Cycle Plant.

“I believe in giving back to the community,” Prevost said. “The older you get, the more thankful you become.”

Site engineer Carvey Magee, raised doing community service in his hometown of Bassfield, wants to continue that tradition in Starkville, his home since 2017.

“It just aligns with my morality, with the military and spirituality,” said Magee, a second lieutenant in the Mississippi Air National Guard.

As they reflected on their handiwork for the day, the volunteers felt grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the community.

“I’ve been blessed to be more than fortunate in my ability to work and do things for other people,” Jay Flake, a mechanical engineering co-op worker at Ackerman said. “I feel like as much as I’m blessed with, I can try to help out others.”