The annual International Lineman Expo and Rodeo. The Expo was held in the Overland Park Convention Center October 17th and 18th. The Rodeo was held in Bonner Springs, Kansas Saturday the 19th. We had Amanda Wilson (North Central Regional Director), Tennille Lundien (South Central Regional Director), and Cayla McBride (North West Regional Director) working the three days doing various promoting.
The girls got to work early Thursday morning setting up our booth (#126). From the minute the doors opened at noon until they closed at five o’clock the NSUJL booth was buzzing. At our booth we had various items that of course are all available for purchase in our store. Our items included our 2014 NSUJL Calendars, coloring books, cookbooks, many glass items, Pandora bead, hook charm and our very popular, custom necklaces.
After the busy Thursday we split up to spread the NSUJL word. Tennille attended the Outside Business Managers meet and greet with her husband and member, Chance. Amanda and Cayla got invited to Local 47s dinner by business manager & IBEW 7th district IEC, Pat Lavin. At the dinner we were invited to stand up say a few words and were thanked for the work our team is doing. Amanda and Cayla were each given a bag full of 47’s trade shirts and more apparel. Pat also did an interview with IBEW Power Hour that night, Amanda did her interview the following morning. (As soon as the interview is available we’ll be sure to share it with you all). It’s difficult to put into words how Local 47 opened their arms to us. We are wives of journeyman lineman but they treated us like we were also their brothers, not just married into this trade. The amount of respect and kindness we received from Pat and his group is indescribable. Each time we ran into any of these guys throughout the weekend, they were putting their stuff down to help us carry boxes and offer us rides. Pat also introduced us to Robert Torres, his brother in law was Jose Raul Ros who passed away April 30th, 2013 out of California.
Friday morning was the start of a full day again. While Amanda, Cayla and Tammy opened the booth at 9 am, Tennille was attending the Outside Business Managers (OBM) meeting. Tennille was able to speak about NSUJLs accomplishments in such a short amount of time and our goals we have to continue to grow. Tennille left the meeting with a new members, a $500 donation from Local 44 and a $1000 sponsorship from the OBM.
Our booth sold out of the glass items and just about all of the necklaces. In the afternoon the expo started to slow down a little and the girls were able to personally thank a few sponsors who were also attending the expo. Thank you again Bashlin, Far West, HDE, Sherman & Reilly, and Hubbell for your sponsorships! We couldn’t be growing as quickly without you.
Sherman & Reilly are also doing their own part to help raise money to help families of injured and fallen lineman. They’re promoting Dale Watson and his song, “I make it right” and donating a portion of the sales back to NSUJL. You can download the song straight from iTunes for .99!
During our down time we were able to visit with our neighboring booth and gained our newest sponsor, Jelco! Thank you again!
Once the 4 girls packed up the expo, they were able to attend the Storm Soldiers movie. Besides being a very educational and awesome movie, Storm Soldiers will be donating a portion of their sales to NSUJL. So cool!
After the movie Amanda and Cayla were able to take part in the “trade night.” Trade night is where each company or local brings t-shirts to trade with each other. We were able to send the girls with some NSUJL shirts and the shirts that were traded back to us will be used in future raffles or baskets in future events.
Saturday morning was the start of the actual rodeo. Although the girls weren’t working the event, they were still able to snag a few new members and put Tennille’s girls to work passing out hard hat stickers to the lineman. Local 53 was kind enough to invite them to use their tent and feed the girls. Thank you again for your support!
All said and done NSUJL raised around $6,000, got new members, sponsors and got the word out there. We got a ton of thank yous but the big thank you goes out to you guys. We are able to help families because of our members and sponsors. We are so excited for the upcoming years, the Sisterhood is growing and we look forward to you guys growing with us. We hope to see you all next year at the 31th Annual Lineman Rodeo!
***For those of you that attended the event, you may have noticed certain ‘glass product’ (ie, a glass transformer ornament), or some other products from Lineman Barn. Please know that these are not items that are carried by NSUJL and the Directors of NSUJL were not aware of the product placement ahead of time. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
