(Greensburg, IN) – Decatur County REMC lineworker Collin Crabtree will join a crew of 13 other Indiana electric cooperative lineworkers traveling to Guatemala in late April as part of an international initiative to bring electricity to a developing area in Guatemala.
“Project Indiana: Empowering Global Communities for a Better Tomorrow” will bring electricity to a part of the Central American country where none is available.
The crew will spend April 27 through May 13 extending electric infrastructure in the village of Peña Roja along the western edge of Guatemala.
When completed, approximately 26 homes will have electricity for the first time.
Crabtree joined Decatur County REMC in 2015 as an Apprentice Groundman. He became a Journeyman Lineman in 2020.
“I am most excited about learning new skills and having to do the work with limited equipment,” said Crabtree.
This is the Indiana electric cooperatives’ fifth trip to Guatemala.
In August 2012, 28 Hoosier lineworkers from 17 of Indiana’s electric cooperatives, spent four weeks working across the mountainous terrain to bring electricity to 184 homes, a church, and a school in three villages.
In April 2015, 14 lineworkers battled extreme heat and rugged land to bring electricity to 164 homes, a school, and a church. In 2017, 14 lineworkers endured temperature extremes to power 68 homes, a school, a church, and a health clinic.
And, on the last trip in 2019, 14 lineworkers brought electricity to nearly 90 homes, two churches, and a school, and ensured that every home they wired for electricity had a properly vented wood-burning cooking stove installed to replace the open fires villagers have used for years.
(Decatur County REMC press release)
