POWERGRAMS

CONTENTS COMMUNITY When the lights shine bright on Friday nights at high school football fields all across the state, Alabama Power employees are in the concession stands, taking tickets, on the sidelines and everywhere else in the stadiums supporting their favorite teams. Page 1 COMMUNITY Some 200,000 fans spend up to $25 million each year in Birmingham for events associated with the annual Magic City Classic at Legion Field. The football game between Alabama A&M and Alabama State universities has long been supported by Alabama Power and its employees. Page 5 APSO Members of the Mobile Division Chapter of the Alabama Power Service Organization can oen be found helping children enjoy activities they have been missing out on because of circumstances beyond a child's control. Page 7 ENERGIZERS Roy Hale has been handling the bills for the Southern Division Chapter of the Energizers volunteer group since he retired seven years ago from Alabama Power's Greenville Office. Page 9 EDUCATION For the first time since the Alabama Power Foundation began rewarding top students with college scholarships in 1991, two students are receiving the foundation's Presidential Scholarship that provides full tuition and fees. Another 20 students are receiving $2,500 annual scholarships to pursue their higher education. Page 11 RESEARCH At Alabama Power's General Services Complex in Calera, employees are experimenting with growing vegetables, herbs and flowers in a year-round controlled environment. Page 17 HISTORY Using internal documents, engineering records, archival documents, photographs and interviews, Alabama Power employees and family members are writing the history of the former villages around Jordan, Lay, Martin and Mitchell dams. Page 21 OUR TOWN The old textile mill towns of Fairfax, Langdale, Riverview and Shawmut existed alongside each other for more than a century bordering the Georgia line before deciding in 1980 to join hands and form a single city: Valley. Page 25 PROFILE Retiree Terry Henderson still has the first car he ever owned. His 1956 Ford Fairlane Victoria has been painstakingly restored to its original glory, and Henderson frequently drives into the winner's lane at car shows. Page 35 ENVIRONMENT Alabama's oldest, largest nonprofit conservation organization, with funding from Alabama Power, is restoring longleaf pine forests that are home to threatened gopher tortoises, while also boosting the habitat of coastal songbirds and pollinators, such as bees and buerflies. Page 39 PROFILE When it's vacation time, many employees head to the beach. Anniston Administrative Assistant Kim Screws, however, is more likely to take off for Tanzania, Peru or Venezuela. Page 41 HAPPY TRAILS Recent retiree Steve Bedsole and his dog, Charlie, go around the country providing encouragement and comfort to survivors and first- responders in the wake of tragedy. Page 43 RETIREES Page 46 IN MEMORIAM Page 47 THUMBS UP! Page 48 POSTCARDS TO POWERGRAMS Page 48 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER • 2018 EDITOR Chuck Chandler 205-257-3651 cchandle@southernco.com ART DIRECTOR Jay Parker CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER Phil Free WRITERS Donna Cope Carla Davis Gilbert Nicholson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Justin Averee Erin Harney CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Alabama Wildlife Federation Chuck Chandler Rick Delahaya Joseph De Sciose Christopher Jones Nik Layman Meg McKinney ON THE COVER Research and Development Engineer Blair Farley holds a tray of plants grown indoors with LED lighting at the General Services Complex in Calera. Photo by Joe DeSciose. See the story on Page 17. POWERGRAMS © Alabama Power Company 2018 Gorgas village, circa 1930s. Story page 21.

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