The Village of Cassopolis’ Department of Public Works got a much needed helping hand from Midwest Energy June 15.

While normally providing electricity to homes and businesses across Cass County, Midwest Energy offered a different kind of power to a number of local causes Wednesday.

Employees with the Cassopolis energy cooperative rolled up their leaves, grabbed some tools and got their hands dirty that morning, as Midwest hosted its first day of action.

Around 95 employees and executives spent the day away from the office, forming into eight teams as they tackled community service projects throughout the county, said Patty Nowlin, director of communications and community relations with Midwest.

In Cassopolis, the teams took on several projects, including cleaning up the Cass County fairgrounds, to help prepare the site for the county fair later this summer; assisted volunteers with the Cass County COA in building wheel chair ramps for several area residents and helped spruce up the grounds of the village’s Don Horne, Log Cabin and Clisbee Parks and several Cassopolis school buildings.

Department of Public Works Director Ben Anderson was much appreciative of the work that Midwest employees did and feels that it will help his department get to some additional projects that may they may not have gotten to this summer.

“We have a lot of stuff to do over the summer and we try to get to as much of it as we can,” Anderson said. “But there are always surprises that pop up like interceptor breaks and we always wind up getting really far behind. But with this, they really put us out in front of a lot of things that were already on our list.”

One of the things that may be most notable to village residents is the tree work that was done by Midwest around Clisbee Park.

With a bucket truck and chainsaws, Midwest workers trimmed back the branches around the basketball court. That would have been something the Village of Cassopolis would have had to pay a tree service to do.

“Myself and the community are forever in debt to the work that they did. Because it was such a large amount and it frees up a lot more time for my guys moving forward,” Anderson said.

Midwest employees also helped with several county parks, including Vandalia’s T.K. Lawless and Russ Forest Park, located outside of Dowagiac. At Russ Forest, crews were separated into two groups, with one helping to construct new fencing around the entrance of the park’s nature trail and another spreading mulch around the playground equipment.

According to Nowlin, Midwest decided to host the service day as way to further enhance the local community — especially as the company begins construction of its new headquarters, located across the street from the COA’s Lowe Center in Cassopolis.

“Cassopolis has been our home for 80 years now, and we want to keep it that way,” she said. “This is another way for us to bring our employees and our community even closer together.”

The company called the event “changing the landscape,” to reflect not just the work the employees performed Wednesday to physically transform these sites, but also to express how the Midwest is helping to change the county landscape through the building of its new headquarters as well as initiatives such as its rural fiber optic network, Nowlin said.

One of the employees working at Russ that morning was Katie Mack, a Cassopolis resident who has been with Midwest for seven years. An employee of the company’s call center, Mack said she frequently volunteers for the company’s community service projects, including helping rake local lawns during the United Way’s Day of Action last fall.

“I’m from Cassopolis,” she said. “I’ve lived here all my life. I want to make sure my community reflects how I feel about it. I love this place.”