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Dominion Energy Volunteer of the Year Helps The Homeless

Sandy Easley is a Controls Specialist at Dominion Energy’s Surry Nuclear Power Station. When she’s not working, she is often volunteering to help someone less fortunate. Sandy’s advocacy for helping homeless families led to earning an award as a Dominion Energy Volunteer of the Year.

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Special to the New Journal and Guide

Sandy Easley is a Controls Specialist at Dominion Energy’s Surry Nuclear Power Station. When she’s not working, she is often volunteering to help someone less fortunate. Sandy’s advocacy for helping homeless families led to earning an award as a Dominion Energy Volunteer of the Year.

“It meant so much to me because that’s who I am,” Sandy said. “I’m always trying to help someone in any way I can, especially people in the homeless community.”

Sandy is a committed volunteer and board member with Menchville House Ministries, an emergency housing facility for homeless families in Newport News, Virginia. In 2016, after meeting a woman living out of her car with her 5-year-old daughter, Sandy contacted the Menchville House director, who was able to help the woman and her family. This experience prompted Sandy to begin working closely with the organization as a volunteer and then as a board member.

“It is rewarding to see how many of the residents benefit from the services offered and move on to stable employment and housing,” Sandy said. “The first women I met who came here is now working, going to school and she lives in a safe home for herself and her daughter. She recently called me about volunteering at the Menchville house because she wants to give back. That’s an awesome feeling.”

Financial matters are a major concern for board members of any non-profit organization, and, as a Dominion Energy employee, Sandy realized how important cutting electric bills would help. So Sandy worked with the company’s EnergyShare program to organize a group of coworkers to weatherize and make other energy efficiency improvements at Menchville House Ministries. Employee volunteers installed new faucets, light bulbs, window blinds and screens, stairway handrails and insulation, along with painting a portion of the facility. EnergyShare also donated more than $5,000 to the organization helping women and children transition out of homelessness.

Receiving one of Dominion Energy’s most prestigious awards at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond on April 26th made it even more meaningful for Sandy. April 26th is the day her mother died, twenty years ago, at the young age of 53. It was a Sunday.

“I’ll never forget that date,” Sandy said. “After teaching Sunday School, she sat down in church next to my Daddy, sighed and went away from here.”

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The loss was devastating for Sandy’s tight knit family and community in Smithfield where her mother had helped so many people. Sandy remembers how much her mother taught her to help others who were less fortunate. She was her role model. And now, Sandy is happier to think of April 26th as the date she was able to honor her mother’s memory.

As Volunteer of the Year, Sandy gets to choose an organization to receive $5,000 in her name, from The Dominion Energy Foundation. While Sandy enjoys a wide range of volunteer service, The Menchville House Ministries has a special place in her heart.

I’m blessed to have such support from my family, especially my husband James of twenty years. And I’m grateful to work for a company that is dedicated to giving back to our communities.”

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