Electrical Connection earns Missouri Show Me Service Award for its support of Rebuilding Together St. Louis

The Electrical Connection has been honored with a Missouri Show Me Service Award for its 19 years of support to Rebuilding Together St. Louis.

The Electrical Connection is a partnership of IBEW Local 1 and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). Rebuilding Together St. Louis has provided free home repairs in St. Louis for more than 25 years, focusing on projects that improve homeowners’ safety, health and independence.

Since 2003, the Electrical Connection has donated more than $2.3 million in labor and materials to make electrical repairs and improvements to 570 homes for low-income, disabled and elderly St. Louisans.

ARMY OF ELECTRICIANS
“Every year, an army of 100-plus IBEW Local 1 electricians and more than 20 electrical contractor St. Louis NECA contractor members give up their Saturday for a special purpose,” the Missouri Community Service Commission stated. “They unite to make critical lifesaving electrical repairs to low-income homes in the St. Louis area.”

Rebuilding Together St. Louis was put on hold in 2020 because of the pandemic. But in 2021 and 2022, it was renewed with vigor when the partnership made repairs to 30 homes.

‘We had a lot of catching up to do since the pandemic limited our access to volunteer resources as we continued serving our neighbors in need,” said Elaine Powers, Rebuilding Together St. Louis executive director.

TRAINED EYE OF THE SKILLED ELECTRICIAN
The repairs and upgrades vary – a new ceiling fan, light fixture or bathroom vent, improvements to electrical panels, new switches and sockets – but it is the trained eye of the skilled electrician that uncovers the most critical issue needing repair: faulty wiring. For the elderly living in aging homes on a fixed income, electrical systems can fall into disrepair.

And the “cheap fix” of an unskilled “handyman” can create a hidden fire danger or shock hazard. The IBEW/NECA Electrical Connection partnership encounters innumerable hazards including exposed wires, open splices, overloaded panel boxes and a lack of ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) switches and outlets.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Members of the Electrical Connection provide safe and reliable electrical construction, maintenance, repair and replacement services across Missouri, the nation and the world. For more information, visit electricalconnection.org.