Winter 2017: Marietta’s Mission Moment
THE GIFT OF POWER: NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS
Last month, following two snowfalls that effectively paralyzed Portland, a concerned Pacific Power customer who was keenly aware that it was cold outside offered to help a struggling household with their bills. Not knowing how to go about paying someone’s utility bill herself, she called the Customer Service line of Pacific Power.
Their Customer Service representative was unable to take a donation directly, but offered to make a conference call with Oregon Energy Fund, knowing we could help. Once the Customer Service representative was able to successfully connect this new donor to us, she and I had a wonderful conversation The donor was very interested to learn more about how we work with our partner agencies to help those in crisis and pleased that her donation would help a family in her community receive help.
This wonderful exchange validated for me that our utility partners know they can rely on us to put their customer’s good will to good use in the communities we serve. It was also very gratifying to be able to share with this new donor how our programs work and how we collaborate with our partners in her community.
–Marietta Doney, Deputy Director