ST. LOUIS - On a dangerously sweltering day when much of downtown St. Louis was without power, the Electrical Connection IBEW/NECA came to the rescue for an organization that specializes in rescuing stray animals.

It all began on June 16, 2016 after a massive outage left 2,100 Ameren Missouri customers without power downtown, including Stray Rescue of St. Louis. The animal shelter nonprofit was desperate to find a way to protect 200 dogs in kennels from the rising temperature in its building at 2320 Pine St. It reached out to the public and dozens of volunteers came by to foster the dogs in cooler spaces as work was underway to restore power.

“The public response was great, but we were at a loss on how to protect the remaining dogs in our shelter,” said Randy Grim, executive director of Stray Rescue. “Then the Electrical Connection IBEW/NECA stepped up and came to the rescue.” The Electrical Connection is a partnership of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1 and the St. Louis Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA).

The labor-management partnership donated a large commercial generator and the services to install it. “The Electrical Connection IBEW/NECA is a great asset to the St. Louis community, providing not only great skills and safety to power our region, but also helping the community in times of need,” said Grim. “We are so grateful for their generous donation.”

More information on Stray Rescue can be found at www.strayrescue.org.