News
Making a difference this holiday season
Scott Wagar
11/06/2012
North Central Electric Cooperative in Bottineau is kicking-off a fundraising project to assist those who are less fortunate in the area; and, are doing so with an old-time employee who has always been a “willing hand” to the co-op.
“We thought it would be appropriate to bring back Willie Wired Hand to help sheppard us because he started as the farmer’s hired hand as the wired hand,” said Pete Erickson, member services manager at North Central Electric. “So, he is helping again 62 years later at a different approach.”
The project is called Willie Wired Hand’s Christmas Giving Fund and its goal is to raise cash donations through North Central’s employees, consumers and the general public, which will be given to county social service agencies that will purchase items and give them out at Christmas time to families that are struggling financially. The money that is being raised will be matched to $1,000 by North Central Electric’s board. So, if $1,000 is raised, the board will match it $1,000, giving North Central Electric $2,000 to give to social services.
Lisa Mastvelten, administra-tive assistant, is the director behind the Willie Wired Hand Christmas Giving Fund.
“We were talking one day about helping communities and the idea of helping families in the area was discussed, which fits us so well because we are like a family at North Central Electric. We work together, we joke and laugh together, but most of all we are here for each other for whatever life brings us,” Mastvelten said. “We needed a name for our endeavor and Willie Wired Hand came to mind because we were talking about how we think about the employees we have lost at North Central during the holidays, people like Donny Carlson who always put up the Christmas lights and Willie Wired Hand decoration outside of North Central for all our enjoyment. We talked how we would bring our children here to see all the lights, decorations and Willie Wire Hand and it just seemed fit to go this direction.
“We then asked Randy Longie, the warehouse manager, and some of the other employees to bring him out of retirement, which Willie was in a closet, dust him off and bring him back to life,” Mastvelten added.
Individuals who drive by North Central Electric will once again see Willie Wired Hand standing out front at North Central; and, Erickson and Mastvelten hope it will not only bring joy back to people’s hearts seeing Willie once again during the holiday season, but remind them to give to the co-ops project in helping others.
North Central will receive donations until Christmas and beyond the holiday season because it is setting up a fund for collections that can be given year round so that they can continue to provide this program each Christmas season.
Individuals can send donations to North Central Electric in care of Lisa Mastvelten at 538 11th St. West, Suite 1, Bottineau, ND 58318. Please make checks out to North Central Electric. Individuals can also make a cash donation in the front office of North Central Electric during the week days.
Andrew McLay, a freelance artist working for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, created Willie Wired Hand on October 30, 1950, with the idea the co-op’s logo should symbolize rural electrical services as the farmer’s hired hand because the hired hand always plays an important part on agricultural farmsteads.
In the 1950s, animated caricatures played a major role in business logos for companies across the United States, so McLay came up with the idea sketching Willie Wired Hand with a light-socket head, push-button nose and an old-fashion electrical plug for his body and feet.
McLay originally called his animated sketch Willie the Wired Hand, but later shortened it to Willie Wired Hand when he became NRECA ambassador in 1951.
For now, Willie Wired Hand will be greeting people as they drive by North Central to remind people to give to others.