By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — On Christmas, the American Legion Post #155 had more guests than it typically does on this holiday. 

Area volunteers associated with the legion hall spent some of their Christmas preparing and serving dinners to 200 line-workers who had spent their Christmas Day out in the chilly weather, trying to return power to residents in Naples and Bridgton.

Since the snowstorm on Dec. 17, hundreds of linemen contracted by Central Maine Power (CMP) have been working in the Lake Region to restore power to customers. Prior to the most recent rainstorm with 60-mph gusts on Friday, Dec. 23, more line workers arrived from out-of-state and Canada.

Susan Hastings is one of those workers who ate her Christmas dinner at the legion in Naples. Hastings is not too far from home. She lives in Farmington and she works at the Augusta General Office.

“I am a transmission planning engineer for CMP. My job, my storm role is a damage assessor,” Hastings said. 

She hikes along the power lines, taking photos and documenting damage. She hikes to every single utility pole along a circuit, sometimes more than once. 

Because of the timing of the storm, she knew that she would be out in the field and away from home and family for Christmas. 

“The company let us all know ahead of time that it was going to be ‘all hands-on-deck’ and to cancel any holiday plans,” Hastings said.

She gladly accepted the job “because it is critical that everybody has power. I know what it feels like when you don’t have power. And so, it is really important that people get power as soon as possible,” she said. 

“My family was nice. They picked up my children even though I couldn’t be there and made sure they were able to participatein the family Christmas still. We’ll do something later. I am fortunate. My kids are all teenagers, and they were much more understanding. We have a lot of workers who had to leave the ‘littles’ at home and that is really, really tough,” she said.

The community helps to make being away from home more palatable. In fact, Mainers have been very appreciative of the job line workers are doing, she said. 

“The community has been great. We had people bringing us cookies as they saw us outside and making sure that they say thanks,” she said. 

As she enjoyed a bowl of chocolate ice cream after dinner with her co-workers, Hastings commented on how nice the spread was. 

“The American Legion here is wonderful. They have been so kind and so friendly. To dress up like little elves, and have the Christmas music. It looks beautiful in here. There are desserts as far as the eye can see. Yes, you are away from home but you feel like you are at home having a nice, Christmas meal,” she said. “That is really important. A lot of these guys that are up here working on the lines have travelled a long-ways to come out and are really far from home. This is nice that they can have a little something that feels like home,” she said.

Volunteerism energizes American Legion

“We are trying to make the Merry Christmas as best we can for them,” said Maxine Godwin.

Godwin is an employee at the legion who took a big role in planning and preparing the food as well as making sure the guests were satisfied with their meal. Frequently, she reminded the guests to visit the dessert table.  

Five days before Christmas, Godwin learned about the decision to make a meal for about 250 people.

“I got the phone call Tuesday afternoon. So, we started lists and went shopping on Wednesday. We ended up buying 26 turkeys, 14 hams, 150 pounds of potatoes, 70 pounds of carrots, squash, gravy, rolls, you name it,” she said.

“Howell Labs donated $500 worth of desserts, which was amazing. We had the Ladies Auxiliary make desserts as well,” Godwin said. 

 “All the guys seemed really appreciative,” she commented.

Mike Allen, who hails from Amesbury, Mass., and has worked as a lineman for 22 years, expressed his thankfulness about the holiday meal.

“Wow, this is great. This type of stuff is great. Everyone here is so nice. Whenever we travel, there are always people who are so nice to us. It makes it easier for us,” Allen said. 

Earlier in the week, Post No. 155 Adjutant Zak Horton saw a post on community Facebook from a woman who was asking about a restaurant or building big enough to host 250 people. He learned that the request was for a Christmas Day meal for out-of-state crew working for CMP.  The legion decided to take on the task of serving that number of people for Christmas. 

“It went well. We had plenty of food, which is good. At least, we didn’t run out. Not all the linemen were able to make it. Some crews just came in that day and didn’t know about it until that day. Some workers got done early and went home to family,” he said. “A lot of crew members couldn’t get away. They weren’t allowed to come to the dinner until what they were working on was done. They had to finish the job so other crews brought dinner to them.”

“We served close to 200 people,” he said. 

The legion volunteers have been hustling during the day leading up to Christmas, he said. 

“The ovens at the legion can cook five turkeys at one time. The rest of the turkeys [24] went home with volunteers, and were cooked into their own ovens at home,” he said.

The volunteers were from the American Legion Officers, the Ladies Auxiliary Officers, and the Sons of the American Legion Officers, according to Horton.    

Godwin said, “A big thank you to all the volunteers.” 

Jodi Paul is an employee at the Legion who  likes doing volunteer work with her three daughters. On Sunday, they dressed up as elves and worked out front at the buffet-style service.  

“It’s been awesome. It really has. What a way to spend Christmas with my family,” her daughter Sarah Paul said.

Caitlyn, who was in charge of serving the stuffing, said that her family volunteers quite often and it was a good experience to do it together. It was meaningful for her, too. 

“They kept our power on so I’m happy to contribute back,” Caitlyn said.  

Besides serving the crew coming through with empty plates, the Paul family helped with food preparation.

“We were peeling potatoes:150 potatoes,” she said.  

“I think this is an amazing thing that the American Legion is doing for these line workers. I am happy to help out,” Jodi said. 

Just part of the job as a line worker

A traditional Christmas supper — turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut squash, stuffing, green beans and a roll — sat on the plate in front of Chris Collis, of Virginia. He has accepted that because of the nature of his job, Christmas Day might not always include being with his family. 

“This is what we do. Last count, I’ve been in 21 states this year,” he said.

“We go where the work is. Obviously, localities like this can’t keep 7,000 linemen working year-round. You have to go where the work is,” he said. 

Missing out on being home for the holidays is happening “more and more lately,” he said.   

“This is the first Christmas [away], but I’ve missed everything else several times. I have been on storms for the last five Fourth of Julys, the last four Halloweens, three out of the last four Thanksgivings,” Collis said, adding, “I missed my wife’s birthday this year on Sept. 7.”

Allen, of Amesbury, said it has become “normal” to be away for the holidays.

“I’ve got three kids and umm Santa comes late on many Christmases,” Allen said. 

However, this year, his children and wife got to visit him on Christmas Eve.  

“They came and slept at the hotel last night. They are about two hours away so the family came to the hotel last night and I got see them and have dinner with them last night,” he said. 

“I’ve missed two out of the last three Christmases. There was one year, we missed every single holiday except for Christmas. That was three years ago,” Allen said. “I tell you after 22 years the family still doesn’t like it. The family doesn’t get used to it. We get used to it but they don’t.”

Kevin Hare, of Okeechobee, Fla., said his family has grown accustomed to his absence after six or seven years as a lineman. 

“They [my family] just get used to it. They do it [Christmas] without me,” he said. “They know we are going to be there or we won’t. They are just as strong as we are — our families are. They deal with a lot dealing with us being gone, for sure.” 

“We miss a lot. We miss a lot, but we don’t leave people in the cold. We get their lights back on. It’s our job,” Hare said. “This is our 10th day on this storm. Day ten.”

Helgerson, who hails from central Massachusetts, said it didn’t feel like Christmas. 

“Yeah, it does feel like a regular day at work being out on Christmas, but I still wish I was home. When I woke up this morning, it wasn’t like Christmas. It was like the last nine days before this,” he said.

Loved ones and family have agreed to postpone celebrations. 

“I am sure me and my fiancee will have something small in our house and I’ll see my family later,” he said.  

On Friday, when the wind was howling and the rain was pouring “we were out there just trying to clear lines that were gone and energize lines. They call it make safe work,” Helgerson said. 

Allen said when the crews come out to Maine they are expected to work no matter the weather. 

“We shut down the buckets for a couple hours because trees were falling all around the linemen” during the windstorm, he said. 

That was a hairy moment two days before Christmas. Yet, throughout the community, the line workers hear words of thanks for see thank you’s on business marquees. The food was a very tangible and delicious way of being thanked for a job well done.

“The food is very good, much better than I expected. I’ve had a lot of ham sandwiches,”

Helgerson said. “We’ve had a lot of ham sandwiches,” laughed Ha