Whether providing reliable electricity to the community or  building a place for a child’s imagination to wander, Snapping Shoals EMC employees are actively empowering the community in ways that will have a lasting impact.

With the donation of utility poles and the help of employees, Snapping Shoals was able to quite literally lay the ‘foundations of a dream’ for Covington Chimney Park’s latest addition: an all-accessible, two-story treehouse. SSEMC’s very own Scott Fuss (Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator), who  serves on the board for Chimney Park, conceptualized the design for the treehouse in 2016. He shared how the idea for the treehouse came to be.

“The tree house was one of the first ideas for the park when this all started. Mike and Kelly Hopkins (a former SSEMC employee) were a big driving force in it being an all-accessible park, as they have had three children with special needs” Fuss said.

Fuss shared how Snapping Shoals employees helped bring this dream to fruition, one that’s been more than twenty years in the making.

“Snapping Shoals has had a big role to play in the park. Melvin Allen (retired SSEMC employee) has served on the board and  of course, myself. Bruce Watts (Manager of Operations) and Bobby Fincher (Director of Line Services) helped to load and deliver the poles to the property for the foundation. Don Ritchey (Senior Vice President of Line Services) helped get the utility poles signed off for the base,” Fuss said.

The treehouse was built in true cooperative spirit.

“All of the money was raised through friends of the park, nothing was donated by the county or taxpayers, it was all privately funded. It was the community coming together to build the treehouse, which is now a centerpiece for the park. It was pretty exciting to see it come together after twenty plus years,” Fuss said.