MMUA wouldn’t be much without its members.

That point was driven home again Saturday, April 2, at the national Public Power Lineworkers Rodeo, held at Canterbury Park in Shakopee.

Sure, Shakopee Public Utilities (SPU) and MMUA were hosts of this American Public Power Association event, but we couldn’t have done it without the members’ help and, in many cases, the help of their spouses and other family members. The avalanche of help started last fall, when approximately one-quarter of the state’s 125 municipal electric utilities came to Shakopee to build the rodeo grounds.

Many other members, who were unable to help build the grounds, contributed to the effort in a variety of ways.

At the rodeo itself, approximately 230 volunteers did everything from greeting, to auditing results, to hanging dummies for the hurtman rescue, judging, helping in a number of different areas and generally doing whatever needed to be done to the make the event function smoothly. And function smoothly it did.

This year’s event was the largest ever, in terms of participants. That required a larger-than-ever volunteer effort, and the people involved with Minnesota’s municipal utilities came through in a big way. Everybody gave up their Saturday because they wanted to be part of something larger than themselves. Some people worked two or three shifts. Many were on-site the entire day. Some of these were outside, for hours, braving a bitter northwest wind to do whatever needed to be done to make the rodeo go.

Many others came just to watch and to you, too, we are grateful for your interest and involvement. What would an event be without spectators!

The linemen, this day, were the stars. (And happy we were about it—they deserve it.)

They couldn’t have enjoyed the spotlight, however, without the efforts of many others.

The effort was too large, too varied, and strong in too many areas to call out particulars. Every volunteer was important. Many volunteers came into Minneapolis Thursday or Friday to help setup registration and sales for the APPA meeting, before helping make the Rodeo go on Saturday.

MMUA would like to extend its sincere thanks to every individual volunteer and the utilities they represented. While the laurels have fallen on our shoulders, we know who is really responsible for our success.

We thank you for it.