We’re Still Writing the Story by: Chelsey Guffy, Director of PR/Communications
Every October, electric cooperatives across the country celebrate National Co-op Month. It’s an opportunity to recognize what makes the cooperative business model different. But this year, as Alfalfa Electric approaches our 90th anniversary, I find myself thinking a little more about what being a cooperative really means—and how remarkable it is that we are still carrying forward something our neighbors started nearly 90 years ago. In the mid-1930s, fewer than one in ten rural homes had electricity. In northwest Oklahoma, life revolved around long days and hard work. Existing utilities didn't consider extending electric service into the countryside profitable. Then came an opportunity. In 1935, the Rural Electrification Administration was created, giving rural communities access to financing to build their own electric systems. Across the country, rural citizens began forming cooperatives—working together to do for their communities what they could not accomplish alone. Here at home, local farm families took that opportunity and ran with it. These were people who understood planting and harvest, caring for livestock, and raising families. Electricity wouldn’t change who they were or the values they lived by—but it could change what was possible for their farms, their families and their communities. So they organized. They worked together. And in 1937, Alfalfa Electric Cooperative was born. In its first year, AEC energized more than 660 meters across Alfalfa, Woods, and Major counties. What started there has grown into a cooperative serving over 8,400 meters across 3,300 miles of line in five counties in Oklahoma and two in Kansas. A lot has changed in nearly 90 years. The equipment has changed. Technology has changed. The way we communicate has changed. The way our members use electricity has certainly changed. But the reason we are here hasn’t. We are here to serve our members. Today, that service means maintaining and strengthening our electric system, restoring power after storms, investing in our young people, supporting our local communities, and finding better ways to serve and communicate with you. But underneath all of that is the same idea that brought those first families together: we can accomplish things together that we simply cannot accomplish alone. That is what a cooperative is. Local people built AEC to serve local people. Nearly 90 years later, it still belongs to the people it was created to serve. This is your cooperative. As someone with the privilege of telling AEC’s story, I get to see it take shape in everyday moments—the way our employees care about the people they serve, the way our communities show up for one another, and the generations of families who have called AEC their cooperative. And with our 90th anniversary getting closer, I keep coming back to one thought: Our history isn’t only something behind us. We’re still writing it. Our employees are part of it. Our trustees are part of it. The young people representing AEC through our youth programs are part of it. And every member reading this is part of it, too. What began in 1937 didn’t end when the first poles were set, or the first lights came on. It became something for the next generation to take care of—and then the next. Now, it’s our turn. This National Co-op Month, I hope we can appreciate how far this cooperative has come, the people who made it possible, and the responsibility we share in carrying it forward. Nearly 90 years later, we’re still here. Still serving our neighbors. Still building on what those first members started. And together, we’re still writing the story.