Currents-Nov. 2018

Suwannee Valley

WE BELONG TO THOSE WE SERVE Business Office: 800-447-4509 11340 100th Street • Live Oak, FL 32060 Lobby Hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday

currents November 2018

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Thankful for our members

A helping hand Michael S. McWaters Executive V.P./CEO

November is always a time for taking stock in our lives and giving thanks for our blessings. This year, I think we have a great deal to be thankful for.

When Hurricane Michael began moving in our direction last month, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person who feared the worst. But as it turned out, our system was fortunate to be spared the brunt of the storm’s force.

While we can be grateful for our own safety, we have seen that some of our neighbors were not as lucky. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power in Florida, with some areas sustaining such irreparable damage that residents decided not to return.

Recovering from such widespread devastation is a daunting task, but these are also the times when the strength of the cooperative model shines.

In the days after the storm, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative sent two groups of linemen, right-of-way crewmen, warehousemen and mechanics to help Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative get the lights back on for their members.

At SVEC, we are always ready to lend our fellow cooperatives a helping hand. We relish the opportunity. We know that when our system is the one hit hard, as we were last year by Hurricane Irma, other cooperatives will come to our aid just as quickly.

I’m thankful to be part of a cooperative family that supports each other during challenging times like these. I hope you’re proud to be a part of it, too. 

As part of the cooperative business model, one of our core principles is “Concern for Community.” While our priority is always to provide safe, affordable and reliable energy, we view our role in the community as a catalyst for good.

We are purposeful in supporting the efforts of local groups such as the United Way of Suwannee Valley, The ARC North Florida and Love Inc. We work closely with our local schools to conduct safety demonstrations, award college scholarships and provide support for academic, sports and band programs.

SVEC also participates in an annual youth tour where we take some of our community’s brightest young people to Washington, D.C., to experience democracy in action. The trip is inspirational for many students, and we are both humbled and honored to be a part of this leadership development opportunity organized by our state and national associations.

Ultimately, the larger community benefits from these programs because of you.

You empower the co-op through your membership and through your participation in and support of these programs.

When you attend co-op events, alert us to problems or provide suggestions to our employees, you help us improve operations and thereby better serve the larger co-op membership.

Because we are governed by members like yourself, we are able to get a firsthand perspective on community priorities, which enables us to make better-informed decisions on long-term investments, such as equipment and technology upgrades.

We are thankful that our trustees carve out time to attend important training sessions, participate in planning meetings and keep abreast of co-op and industry issues. This investment in time results in better-informed advisors who serve the co-op’s interests in a way that our consumer-members expect and deserve.

On a more personal note, we appreciate the many acts of kindness our lineworkers and other employees receive when they are working in severe weather and hazardous conditions. Our employees are thankful for your patience and consideration when we are trying to restore power during challenging situations and prolonged periods.

SVEC was established 81 years ago to bring electricity to our area when no one else would. The cooperative is a reflection of our local community and its evolving needs. Together, let’s continue making our corner of the world a better place. We can’t do it without you, and we are thankful for you and your support. 

friends Kitty Carroll celebrates the bonds between

Accipiter Enterprises’ mission is to use falconry to provide entertainment while also teaching the public about the joys of nature.

Parrots and cockatoos may make convenient household pets, but Kitty Carroll has always preferred larger birds. For her, the birds of prey she shows at Accipiter Enterprises are more than pets. They’re partners.

Carroll can recall her first exposure to the ancient sport of falconry. Like many others who share her passion for airborne raptors, she was enthralled by the story told in Jean Craighead George’s “My Side of the Mountain.”

“That was the book that got a lot of falconers started,” she says. “I was 13 years old when they made it into a movie, and that was what sparked my interest in falconry.”

The book follows the journey of Sam, a young boy who leaves his family’s crowded apartment in New York to live on his own in the Catskill Mountains. While learning to survive in the wilderness, he raises a peregrine falcon, Frightful, and trains it to hunt.

“I found out I could have a very personal relationship with a bird as a falconer and we could actually be partners in the field hunting game,” Carroll says.

Five years after the movie’s 1969 release, Carroll earned her falconer’s license. Eight years later, she had earned her Master Falconer classification. But the craft was still primarily a hobby for her. Living in her 2 NOVEMBER 2018

home state of Maryland and working for the National Institute of Health, she explored the Renaissance fair circuit and found that falconers could make a living performing at the events.

“People love birds of prey. We’re one of the biggest attractions at fairs and festivals,” she says. “They put us at the slowest parts of the event because they know we will draw people through to the areas with low traffic.”

After presenting her Birds of the Gauntlet show on weekends, Carroll took the plunge into full-time falconry in 1989. She moved

to Florida and started Accipiter Enterprises, based in Live Oak.

PROTECTING THE NEST

The mission of Accipiter Enterprises has always been to offer entertainment through raptor performances while teaching the general public about the joys of nature and responsibility to the environment. But Carroll also tries to inform her audiences about the important role falconry has played in aiding conservation efforts throughout history.

Kitty Carroll wears period attire to educate the public during a Birds of the Gauntlet program.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY ACCIPITER ENTERPRISES

man and raptor

Suwannee Valley Currents

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY ACCIPITER ENTERPRISES

FEATHERED

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY ACCIPITER ENTERPRISES

EYE IN THE

SKY

Accipiter Enterprises is available for private events as well as school shows, daytime Hawk Walks along nature trails and evening Owl Prowls. Nature photography sessions, full- or half-day hunts and falconry

Kitty Carroll’s program features freeflying hawks and a simulated hunt.

“I would watch other people do bird of prey programs, and I thought they were OK. But they weren’t mentioning falconers’ leadership in conservation,” she says. “Falconers sounded the alarm that persecution of birds of prey was unethical and foolish decades before the Fish and Wildlife Service began protecting them.”

Carroll teaches audiences about efforts to save the peregrine falcon and other endangered bird species during her Educational Birds of Prey programs, which feature freeflying hawks and a simulated hunt to keep both students and adults engaged.

Her Birds of the Gauntlet program is especially popular at Renaissance fairs, where guests can view hawks on display and watch them dive at a lure simulating one of the small birds they might prey upon in the wild.

Carroll can even take guests on day hunts, where they experience the bond between the hunter and falcon.

But as much as she enjoys showing off her birds, Carroll’s favorite part of each event is the chance to meet people and help them better understand these majestic animals.

“We like to give accurate info about this spectacular stuff,” she says. “I get a lot of people asking, ‘Can they carry off my 12-pound dog?’ No, they cannot do that.

It dispels a lot of the myths about birds of prey.”

Suwannee Valley Currents

apprentice workshops can also be She also tries to teach people how their actions affect the larger ecosystem. Throwing uneaten food on the side of the road, for example, may seem harmless, but it can attract mice, which draw hawks to highways where they can be struck by vehicles.

Similarly, using rat poison can have negative effects on animals further up the food chain that would otherwise help control the rodent population naturally.

It’s all part of Carroll’s mission to encourage people to respect nature and their place within it.

“There are so many little things you can do in your life and on your property to be more in harmony with nature,” she says. “It doesn’t have a negative effect on your quality of life at all. In fact, we’ve found more interaction with nature can only make your life better.” 

booked at birdsofprey.net.

Accipiter Enterprises also offers falconry-based bird and pest control, using the presence of trained predatory birds to intimidate or drive away small birds and animals that can be problematic for crops. For more information on this eco-friendly method of controlling pests, visit birdstrikeforce.com.

Kitty Carroll teaches audiences about efforts to save endangered bird species during her Educational Birds of Prey program.

NOVEMBER 2018 3

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE LIGHT OUT?

WE NEED TO KNOW. To report a malfunctioning area or street light, touch “Contact Us” on the SmartHub home screen, then touch “AREA LIGHT OUT” and use the comments area to request a repair. Or, call 800-447-4509. Members who report a malfunctioning outdoor light will be contacted by an SVEC member service representative by the end of the next business day.

SVEC recently launched its new and improved website with the goals of improving site navigation and making it easier to find important cooperative news and information.

The site contains a live-chat function and on-line forms to make doing business with the cooperative more convenient.

Round Up® program to begin in January Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative will begin Operation Round Up in January when the bills of participating members will be rounded up to the nearest whole dollar. Money raised through the program will fund grants to benefit students in local schools.

While an individual member’s donation amounts to pocket change each month, the program allows SVEC to collect an average of $6 for each participating member annually.

Together, those donations add up.

Once the donations have been collected, the teachers from local schools will be able to submit applications for classroom projects or supplies.

Members who do not wish to have their bills rounded up must call the cooperative at 800-447-4509 and let us know.

Visit the site at svec-coop.com.

THREE LINEMEN BECOME JOURNEYMEN Dereck Fillyaw, James Humphrey and Doug Wynn have completed SVEC’s apprentice program and are now journeymen linemen. Each graduate of the program must complete a minimum of 8,000 hours of on-the-job training and a minimum of 576 hours of academic study. The graduates also completed the Northwest Lineman College Lineman Certification Program, which includes classroom, lab and field instruction.

SVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer.