Sept. 9, 2005

Linemen take toys to Katrina victims

Seventeen GreyStone linemen working against incredible conditions to restore power to Mississippi residents in Columbus, Waveland and Bay St. Louis for the past week and a half sent a special and unusual request to GreyStone Power employees: we need toys.

Encountering countless homeless children who had lost everything including their toys, Construction Line Foreman Kenny Wylie witnessed a youngster excitedly pick up a weather-beaten toy on the side of the road, saying "I'm going to keep this." GreyStone employees mobilized and in two days had a load of toys to send with the new group of linemen who are leaving Saturday morning to replace the original group, which will be returning Saturday.

"It's heartbreaking, I've never seen such devastation," said Wylie, who has worked to restore power following numerous hurricanes and ice storms in locations throughout the southeastern United States. GreyStone Construction Line Foreman Danny Giles headed to Mississippi Friday morning with a trailer full of line building equipment, water, Powerade and toys. The water and Powerade were supplied for the GreyStone crews compliments of Jeld-Wen Millwork University of Austell, GA.

GreyStone lineworkers heading to Mississippi Saturday morning for a 10-day to two-week stint are Giles, Bobby Lawler, Ryan Kendall, Scotty Redden, Joe Nicholson, Shane Crider, Terry Queen, Todd McCoy, Adam McCurdy, Matt Gilbert, Jared Childers, Josh Jones, Erik Hansek, Julio Villegas, Patrick LeCroy, Chad McIntyre, and Clint Capes. Those coming home from Mississippi after volunteering for the effort are Wylie, Eddie Elrod, Billy Vaughan, Steve Jenkins, Andre Reed, Chris Brown, John Timms, Keith Bailey, Chris Gibson, Albert Morris, Tony Brown, Adam Gurley, Travis Fambrough, Daniel Wix, Brynn Speck, Eric Taylor and Taylor Shadrix.