Eight members of the Liberty team have been recognized with the 2025 Meritorious Service Award from the Midwest Energy Association (MEA).
Established in 1905 as a trade association for electric and natural gas utilities, the MEA today serves nearly 100 energy delivery companies. The annual Meritorious Service awards spotlight actions by industry employees who go above and beyond in service of another.
This year, seven Liberty employees were presented with the award: Brandi Chapman, Michael “Todd” Davis, Ernie Demster, Dane Derksen, John Ellis, Jeff Janecek, Doug Johnson, and Isaac Schoeber.
Brandi Chapman
Joplin, Missouri
With her husband working a late shift and her working days as Coordinator II for Liberty’s Environmental Health and Safety department, Brandi Chapman says it has become something of a Friday night tradition – when he gets home after midnight on Fridays, they and their 5-year-old daughter go out for a very early breakfast at Denny’s.
As they made their way home in rural Neck City, Missouri, in the early morning hours on a Friday last fall, they saw something that was definitely out of the ordinary.
“We turned up the road to get to our house and our headlights hit something,” says Chapman. We thought it was an animal or deer in the road at first, and we could see something pouncing around it. It was a little boy, probably around the same age as our daughter. It was chilly and we was wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts, with no socks or shoes. I asked him if he was lost, and he said yes. We called 911 and stayed right alongside him.
"Everywhere he moved, the dog moved to protect him. The dispatcher told us the boy had been reported missing earlier and had been looking for him for several hours.”
The county sheriff soon arrived on the scene. While the boy wouldn’t get into the officer’s car, he did take his hand and continue walking about half a mile up the road to a small church where first responders had gathered to conduct the search. Chapman and her husband followed slowly along behind them, their headlights lighting their path.
“The sheriff said they had searched up and down the road several times and that the boy had to have been in the woods and came out as we turned onto the road,” she said.
An MEA award nomination letter praised her response to the situation: “Due to Brandi and her husband’s quick action and willingness to help, authorities were able to return the child to his parents unharmed. Their actions very possibly saved this young boy’s life.”
Congratulations, Brandi!
Michael “Todd” Davis
Chillicothe, Missouri
Todd Davis, Gas Serviceman, was out in the field carrying out his morning service order when he heard a strange sound.
“I was walking back to the truck when I heard it,” Davis says. “It sounded kind of like a cat meowing. I got back in my truck to fill out my orders and I kept hearing it because the window was down.”
“I happened to look down the road and saw that a woman up the road had fallen while taking out her trash.”
The elderly woman couldn't get up, but when she spotted Davis stop for a service call, she began crying out for help. Davis hurried over and helped her back onto her feet and into her house.
“She thanked me and said she had been laying there for 10 to 15 minutes before I got there,” he says.
Thank you for lending a helping hand, Todd, and congratulations!
Ernie Demster
Aurora, Missouri
Ernie Demster was dispatched to help restore electric service in Aurora following severe weather last year when he encountered a family that had lofty ambitions … maybe a bit too lofty.
“I had stopped to do some damage assessment when a lady came up to me and asked if I had a ladder,” he says. “A limb had fallen on their roof, and they were up there putting up tarps.
"They had used a stepladder to get up there. It was easy for them to use it to get on the roof, but they were having difficulty coming down. One of them was an older gentleman. One trip off a roof and you’re in trouble.”
Demster brought his ladder to the house so the two men could safely climb back down.
According to the MEA nomination letter: “They were impressed with how Liberty employees were not only concerned with getting service restored, but also the safety of people in the community.”
Congratulations, Ernie!
Dane Derksen
Hannibal, Missouri
It was going to be a heavy lift, Dane Derksen observed.
Derksen, Senior Construction Operator, was coming out of a local hardware store with a co-worker when they noticed an elderly man getting ready to try and load a heavy lawnmower into the bed of his truck.
“There was no way he was going to be able to lift it … it was a self-propelled push mower with a bagger on it,” says Derksen. “We were there getting parts to finish a job we were on when we saw him, and I was able to lend him a hand getting it into the truck. He thanked me several times.”
The MEA nomination letter noted: “We often get caught up in the busyness of our own lives, but Dane took the time to help the gentleman out. His acts not only represented the company name well but could have also prevented an injury to the elderly man.”
Congratulations, Dane!
John Ellis
Aurora, Missouri
It was a situation that could have resulted in a tragic accident.
John Ellis, Line Foreman, was driving his truck back to Liberty’s storeroom when he saw a young girl nearly walk into traffic on the busy street. He stopped and went to make sure she was OK and get her out of harm’s way.
“She was little, maybe just 2 years old,” Ellis says. “Her mother had gone into a floral shop. I got her to safety and back into her car and waited with her until her mom came back out.
“(The girl’s mom) realized she had made a poor decision by leaving her daughter alone and was very grateful that I had stopped.”
The MEA nomination letter noted: “Thanks to John’s quick actions, a tragedy may have been prevented.”
Congratulations, John!
Jeff Janecek
Piedmont, Missouri
It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. Jeff Janecek, Senior Service Technician, was doing a line locate in an alley in the Ironton, Missouri, service area when he heard the crash.
“I looked up to see that one of those big trash or waste disposal cans had fallen over,” Janecek says. “I saw an arm go up and thought, ‘Is that a lady underneath it?’”
“Her arm was cut up pretty bad and she also had a cut on her head,” he says. “I helped her up and we called her daughter. I waited there with her to help calm her down until her daughter got there.
“She was scraped up pretty good, but her daughter told me she was pretty country and tough and wasn’t the kind of person to ever ask someone for help.”
Having been on the job for nearly 18 years, Janecek says he’s always on the lookout for anything that seems out of the ordinary. His keen eye and quick actions kept a bad situation from getting worse.
Congratulations, Jeff!
Doug Johnson
Hannibal, Missouri
As he passed along the snowy road in his service truck, it took a moment for the strangeness of what he had just seen to register for Doug Johnson, Operator III.
“I didn’t notice until I was halfway past her, but I saw a woman sitting in her yard,” he says. “I went back to check on her and she said she couldn’t get up. She had fallen and scooted across part of her yard.
“I asked her if she felt like anything was broken, then got her up off the ground and helped her walk slowly back to her house. She was in her 70s and pretty fragile, but I got her back inside.”
She shared with Johnson that she’d had an operation on her hip in recent months and was still weak. She thought she could make it to her mailbox and back, but the ground proved to be too slick.
His MEA nomination letter commended him for sensing that something out of the ordinary was happening: “He escorted her back into the comfort of her home where she could await the arrival of a family member.”
Congratulations, Doug!
Isaac Schoeber
Joplin, Missouri
Liberty considers safety as our “price of admission.” Whether our team members are in the field, behind the wheel, or working in the office, they are trained to prioritize safety above all else, including monitoring their surroundings for potential unsafe conditions.
It’s a practice Isaac Schoeber knows well, as the Lineman Apprentice previously served as the Environmental Health and Safety Manager. Last October, he joined a crew that traveled from Joplin to provide mutual aid storm recovery assistance to Tampa Electric and other utilities working to restore power to those impacted by Hurricane Milton.
On their way to Florida, they received a call to help restore power for residents in the town of Bluefield, West Virginia, and the surrounding area. They spent the next week working in the remote, mountainous area.
As his crew prepared to de-energize circuits so they could work safely while setting new poles along a road, Schoeber took a walk through the immediate area to make sure it was free of any potential safety hazards.
“It was along a hilly, windy road,” he says. “On my way back, I was taking in the scenery … it was beautiful, but then a red object caught my eye. It looked like sticks of dynamite wrapped together along with a timer.”
He immediately informed his supervisor, and the crew cleared the scene as a bomb squad was called to investigate the object.
“They had us stay away, and we heard the big bang as they detonated it on site,” says Schoeber. “What I’ve learned – especially now that I’m on the line side – is that there’s so much going on with the work we do that you always have to be focused and checking your surroundings.”
A nomination letter submitted for the MEA recognition praised his actions that day: “Isaac’s situational awareness and quick response may have saved multiple lives. We are very thankful for his commitment to keeping everyone safe.”
Congratulations, Isaac!