On Thursday, September 26, Kankakee Valley REMC (KV REMC) welcomed a massive crowd to the Porter County Fairgrounds for its Member Appreciation Day and annual Business Meeting. Both a celebration of the electric cooperatives member-consumers, and a gathering to hear updates about co-op business, the event is a time honored tradition for KV REMC.
Over 1200 KV REMC member-consumers filtered in and out of the fairgrounds throughout the evening, drawn in by the allure of a free meal from Birky’s catering, ice cream from Piggies & Cream, funnel cakes from Butter and Grace, Kona Ice and cupcakes by Desserts by Juliette. It also featured live music by KellTones, magic and game shows, and activities for children such as balloon twisting and face painting.
“We think of ourselves as advocates for the community. It's important to us, and this is an opportunity to bring us all together,” Scott Sears, CEO of KV REMC, said. “It’s a beautiful night of music, food, and open discussion. We can find out what’s important to our members, what they need from us, and how we can make their lives better.”
As a co-op, KV REMC is member-owned – everything it does for its member-consumers is made possible by those very same members. Many of them hail from the rural areas of the Region, covering Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Pulaski, St. Joseph, Starke, and Marshall Counties – more than 18,000 residential and commercial members in total.
“We have a pretty large footprint, so a lot of the time folks don’t get to see each other very often,” Mike Yankauskas, KV REMC board president, said. “They may have grown up together and moved apart. Today is kind of a community bonding opportunity, where people can get together and rekindle friendships while they talk about old times or what’s in the future. It’s also a chance for us to get our members to advocate for what’s important to REMC."
As they checked in, each attendee took part in one of the co-op’s most essential responsibilities – voting for their district’s next member of the Board of Directors. Since every member-consumer is part-owner of KV REMC, playing an active role in shaping its future is critical.
“Some of the people that we’ve greeted have talked about how they’ve been coming here for 20 or 30 years,” Sears said. “To some people, it’s a tradition to come out to a meeting. They look forward to the opportunity, so we want to make the most of it for them.”
It also serves as a chance to highlight some of KV REMC’s achievements over the last year, including its completion of a new fiber optic ring.
“We’re evolving our system and becoming more adaptive to technology,” Sears said. “We’ve leveraged that fiber ring to help incumbent organizations provide broadband to our members. We know that access to broadband, be it for work or school, is imperative. So we’ve been excited to bring broadband to rural communities.”
The event also celebrated KV REMC’s junior board, which is a community program where local high school students engage with the REMC as young leaders. KV REMC awarded each participant a $1,000 scholarship.
“This is aimed at helping these kids grow their leadership abilities,” Yankauskas said. “They can be future leaders in the community, the co-op, or even in the State House.”
KV REMC continues to build on its Member Appreciation Day and annual Business Meeting year after year, making it bigger and better than ever before. To learn more about the co-op and how it empowers its member-consumers, visit kvremc.com.