Brandie Hale never imagined that she ever would be any kind of an activist. As a self-described introvert who doesn’t like to talk — especially to large groups — it’s just not the kind of thing she’d put her energy into. Besides, as a mom of five kids, she’s always had plenty of other things to keep her busy, thank you very much.
Yet there she was, under bright lights on a stage with her husband, Brandon Hale, reminding hundreds of business and cooperative leaders from around the state about the importance of workplace safety.
A miles-long procession of vehicles from around the country passed under an archway formed by bucket trucks during Blake’s funeral in December 2022.
“Safety is everything, something that can affect our lives every single day,” she told the crowd. “I definitely don’t like to do this kind of thing, but I will do it forever if it can keep one other family, one other person, from having to live what we live now.”
Pride and joy
Brandie’s oldest child, Blake Rodgers, was born March 25, 2000, and even before his first birthday, he had learned to climb steps and could even climb up onto furniture. As he grew up, he excelled at football and baseball and at being a big brother.
Blake went to trade school for his last two years of high school, and, despite a fear of heights, enrolled in lineworker school when he graduated. “Fearless, determined, and strong-willed,” his mom says. “I was totally clueless when he told me he was going to be a lineman. I was like, ‘All right, you do what you want, good for you.’”
In July 2022, he took a job as an apprentice lineman with Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative in Rio Grande, tasked with maintaining power lines across some of the most treacherous terrain in the state. He loved the work — he took tremendous pride in keeping the lights on — and his infectious personality made him an immediate hit with his co-workers.
And every day after work, he’d call his mom to catch up and “push her buttons.”
Everything changed
From the time he was very young, Blake also loved Christmas — the lights, the decorations, the joy in the air — and was excited as Christmas approached that first year he worked at the co-op.
But there was work to do first. Three days before the holiday, Winter Storm Elliot barreled through the Midwest, bringing high winds, blinding snowfall, sleet, and record cold that affected the majority of the U.S. and parts of Canada.
Temperatures dropped by 40 degrees in a two-hour span, and the sleet that fell across the southern portion of the state did a number on Buckeye Rural’s distribution system. Hundreds were left without power by the morning of Dec. 23, 2022.
As they do, the co-op line crews jumped into action. At 10:20 a.m., as he was working to try to get members’ power back on in time for their holiday celebrations, Blake Rodgers made contact with a line that was energized. It was fatal.
A mother’s pain
“You don’t realize how much someone fills your life until they’re not there,” Brandie says. “I love all my children with every piece of my heart, but I never understood how deep that love ran until I lost one. Losing a child feels like a part of your heart has been torn away — a million pieces that never quite fit back together.”
Christmas, once that most magical time of year, is now something Brandie and Brandon have to brace themselves for, as the season is filled with reminders of that day and of planning Blake’s funeral. It took a long time before they could even think about the events around Blake’s death — let alone talk about them.
But there they were, under those bright lights and speaking from their hearts about workplace safety to the leaders who set the tone and define the workplace safety culture at each of Ohio’s 24 local electric distribution cooperatives. And their message was clear.
“We’re asking you to do the impossible, to seek perfection,” Brandon told them. “I know many of you have outstanding safety records, and that’s something that you should be proud of. You can’t allow that past success to let cracks open up for future failures to seep in.
“We all have a responsibility to those that we lead to do our very best every day,” he continued. “Every organization reflects its leader, every single one. If you make safety your priority, the people who follow you will make it their priority, too.”
Moving forward
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the family felt an outpouring of support, not only from the local community, but from around the state and across the country.
“He was our son and we loved him dearly, but we had no idea how many lives he truly affected in the short time he was alive,” Brandie says. “So now we do everything we can to honor him, to keep his memory going, and to help future linemen so no other family has to live through this.”
Brandie and Brandon put together an annual fundraising bash around Blake’s birthday in March that includes a memorial ride. The proceeds, along with support from the Community Foundation of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives and the Ohio Line Supervisors Association, fund the Blake Rodgers Memorial Scholarship to support students entering lineworker training at the Scioto County Career Technical Center.
“There are limited opportunities for a lot of our young people in this part of the state, and we have been able to send seven young men through lineman school so far,” Brandon says. “We need good people in that line of work and we need to make sure they have the best training possible, so we just believe that it’s our best way that we can give back to the community that has given us so much support.”
