One sunny morning Jaden woke up and went down stairs to eat breakfast. His mom whipped up eggs, bacon, and grits. Jaden ate all of the food his mom made him. It was the perfect way to start his day.

After he finished his breakfast, Jaden started to climb up the stairs to his room. Jaden saw his dad, Phillip, leaving for work. Jaden stopped him and said, "Dad, it is job shadow day at my school today. Can I job shadow you? I want to learn more about what a lineman does." Jaden's dad replied, "I would love to teach you all about what I do every day as a lineman!" Jaden's mom agreed that job shadowing his dad was a wonderful idea. Jaden's dad said, "Get dressed for work, Jaden. Put on something like blue jeans and a t-shirt. You need to wear something cool because we will be working outside in the heat all day." After Jaden got dressed, his dad said, "Hurry up, Jaden and come down stairs." So Jaden ran downstairs and put on his boots and got in the truck.

Once they climbed in the truck they were on the way to the Santee Electric main station. They were driving down the road when they saw a tree fall on a power line. The power line snapped. Phillip dialed 843-355-6187 on his phone and called the main office of the lineman service to report what they saw.

"Dad, I know you keep the power on in our house, but can you tell me more about your job before we arrive?" asked Jaden. Jaden's dad said, "Lineman have to be extremely cautious to prevent getting hurt. We have to wear fire resistant clothing and steel toe boots. We also need helmets and personal protective equipment. We often call it PPE for short." Jaden wondered why his dad needs to wear all of this special gear. He asked his dad, "Why do you need all of this? Why can't you wear regular clothes?" Jaden learned from his dad that he could be electrocuted if he didn't wear the special clothes or something could fall on him. Jaden quickly figured out that his dad is brave to have such a dangerous job.

"Jaden, look out of the window in that field," said Phillip. "That is a wind turbine. Santee Electric Cooperative uses wind turbines and dams collect energy to help us keep the power on." Jaden looked at the wind turbine spinning in the field. He thought that was really neat.

When they got to the station he saw Bob, John, and George putting on their work suits. They have to wear fire resistant clothes, insulated gloves, a hard hat, steel toe boots, safety goggles. Their gear weighs about 50 pounds. Jaden could not believe that his dad was able to wear gear that is so heavy. His dad must be stronger than Jaden actually thought.