“All work and no play” didn’t apply to the regional crews of the Texas-New Mexico Power company on Nov. 13.
Staff members from throughout North Texas turned out to enjoy some fun while also raising money for the good cause of their choice.
“We have linemen, engineering, support [staff]—all of our departments are here,” said Jeremy Nortman, area manager of all North Texas and Lewisville. “That’s what’s cool about it.”
Nortman knows the value of having downtime with members of the TNMP family because their industry is often a high-stress environment.
“I love it—them having fun,” he said.
The people who opted to play bingo, corn hole or pickle ball paid $25 to participate and anyone who entered the raffle paid $5 per ticket.
“Everything we earn gets donated to nonprofits,” Community
Weaver said. “Our sister company, PNM, is deeply affiliated with United Way, but our guys love to promote and support local.”
Project Leader Greg Evans also said he was grateful for the donations given by the contractors who work with TNMP.
“We’ve got great contrac- tors,” he said. “We’ve got some that are new, and they’ve stepped up.”
The additional charity represented onsite was Fallen Lineman Organization, out of Louisiana.
Rebekah Boyd of the organization said she loved the chance to interact with the TNMP staff because power industry support means the nonprofit has “never had to turn a family down.”
“My dad’s been in the industry, both of my grandfathers were in the industry, so it hits close to home,” she said. “Luckily I haven’t had an experience with a fallen or severely injured lineman personally, but I’ve seen a ton of them.”
Although the goal is for no linemen to need the resources the organization provides, it is ready to step in to help the linemen and their families if something drastic does happen.
“This year, I think we’ve already helped 27 families,” Boyd said. “Right now, we’re at about 33 fatalities. Not every fatality needs help. A lot of times the severe injuries need more help than the fatalities.”
Evans said it was good to have Fallen Linemen there, though it’s a hard thing to face.
“Sometimes we take what we do for granted, or what the linemen do day to day in the storms and just our day-to-day work,” he said.
Brenda Henderson, who works in the regional office as a sourcing consultant, loved the chance to play in the pickleball tournament.
“I’m a big fan of pickleball,” she said. “It’s fun, good exercise, keeps you in shape, keeps your focus, and having fun with everybody is nice. … We’re really open to helping however we can.”
Weaver also was excited to see so many TNMP employees come together on Nov. 13.
“Anytime we can get our entire North Texas Region together, having the guys mix in with one another, just bringing that whole team comradery— oh, it’s the best,” she said.
She ballparked participation as about 100.
“We can’t clear out all of our construction centers because we have to have hands on deck just in case there are outages or if our service guys need to go check on anything,” Weaver said.
