Across TVA

Making TVA even more secure

Facilities Management’s Robin Vasa shows Jim Blentlinger (center) and Scott Stone the new security doors in Chattanooga’s Missionary Ridge building. The doors are part of the enhanced security measures being implemented in the Chattanooga and Knoxville office complexes. Employees’ access-control cards will open the security devices as they enter the building, and the devices will automatically operate as employees exit. Employees should remove backpacks and carry briefcases and laptops at their side.

 

Making the 'stars' shine

Beth Jackson, Kingston Fossil Plant management assistant, shows off some of the “stars” on this year’s angel tree. Kingston workers are providing gifts for 60 students from the plant’s Partner In Education schools and for 40 people from local nursing homes. “It is heartbreaking to see some of the Christmas lists,” says Jackson, who organizes the event. “Some of the requests are such simple things that we take for granted, but it is heartwarming when the gifts start coming in. This program would not be possible without the employees and contractors who pull a name from the tree or donate money.” In addition to the tree, Kingston environmental program administrators, led by Cynthia McCowan & Adele Dennison, are providing food baskets and a Christmas card for 15 families from PIE school Dyllis Elementary. The food baskets are funded by Kingston’s Good Neighbor Fund, which raises money from recycling cardboard, white paper and aluminum cans from the plant.

Helping the veterans

Gallatin Fossil Plant Facilities Custodian Ronnie Carter (left) and Level III Mechanical Tech Ronnie Wyatt load bags of underwear for a delivery to Operation Stand Down. Through Gallatin’s annual “Undie 500” campaign, workers donated 1,152 pair of new underwear, socks and T-shirts for homeless veterans. Gallatin also presented OSD a check to make purchases for female veterans. Operation Stand Down is the only full service veteran center in Tennessee.

Bringing treats

TVA Police Officers Todd Milsaps and Rebecca Zirk talk with some of the children from the Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter Oct. 30. Employees throughout the Chattanooga office complex treated a group of about 50 children, mostly 4-year-olds. CH/CS is the Nuclear Power Group’s Partner In Education.

 

 

Treats for children – and employees

Minnie Mouse, aka Emily Jones of Fossil Power Group’s Support Services, visits with one of the children from the Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter Oct. 30. Employees throughout the Chattanooga office complex treated a group of about 50 children, mostly 4-year-olds. CH/CS is a combination home and shelter that provides 24-hour childcare and early childhood education programs, as well as emergency shelter for children in crisis. Eighty percent of the children are from singleparent, low-income households. More than 70 percent of the families are poverty level.

Recognizing TVA

Vyrone Cravanas (center) and Jason Woodle of Corporate Responsibility & Diversity help Christenberry Elementary School children carve pumpkins to celebrate Halloween. The school is CR&D’s Partner In Education. The annual event focuses on children who do not have dads living in the house with them. “We assist them in carving the pumpkins, which they take home at the end of the day,” says Cravanas, who has been the Christenberry PIE coordinator for the past five years. “This is a meaningful part of my job and a chance to make a difference in tomorrow’s potential TVA employees and community leaders, who need encouragement and support to help achieve their dreams.”

TVA supports excellence in engineering

Glenn Cunningham, second from left, and Joseph Ojo, third from left, have been selected to hold the two TVA chairs at Tennessee Technological University’s College of Engineering for the next three years. The chairs were established in 1999 with a $250,000 endowment from TVA to support teaching and research in electrical and mechanical engineering. Cunningham, a mechanical engineering professor, is a recognized expert in energy conservation and holds designation as a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Ojo, an electrical and computer engineering professor, has attained international recognition for his research and holds the Institute of Electrical Engineers Fellow designation. Making the presentation are David Huddleston, dean of the College of Engineering (left), and Clayton Clem (right), TVA vice president of Electric System Projects, alumnus of Tennessee Tech and a member of the Engineering Development Foundation and the Industrial Advisory Board.

Sharing Christmas

Regina D. Ricks (left), Office of Environment & Research business support representative, and TVA Police Lt. Karyn McCormick are among the employees collecting gifts for Sharing Christmas.  “I contacted the state of Alabama Department of Human Resources to adopt a family for Christmas,” says Ricks, who headed up Sharing Christmas for about 20 years. “ She gave us the name of a Colbert County mother and her four young boys. The mother wrote down for us the wish list items and clothes. In addition, we plan to buy household items for them, as well as a food card where she can shop for groceries.”