By: Dennis Washington
Alabama News Center
Erich and Morgan Holderer wanted to do something to honor the legacy of Morgan’s brother, but they didn’t know what that something would be – until a drive in the fall of 2020 they will never forget.
“We passed the Bishop State Community College lineworker training facility that Alabama Power partnered with and we just both looked at each other and had an ‘ah-ha’ moment,” Erich said. “I think we said, ‘Wow, this is it!’ at just about the same time. We just knew that’s what we wanted to do.”
That ‘it’ was helping veterans who needed financial assistance to become a lineman, but the desire to help these future line workers didn’t start on a drive down Dauphin Island Parkway, but rather almost two years earlier – on Christmas Eve 2018, when Morgan’s brother, John Burge III, died in a car crash in Mobile.
“When my brother passed away, we were just all shocked,” Morgan said. “My brother had a three-month-old baby who is two now and a four-year-old son, and our biggest thing was keeping his memory alive.”
As Erich, Morgan and the rest of John’s family grieved, Erich and Morgan also began to think of how they could honor John, who worked as a lineman at Alabama Power. Morgan admits, though, her daily drive past Alabama Power’s line worker training facility at Bishop State initially clouded her thoughts.
“I would cry every time I would pass the school,” Morgan said. “You would see the trucks out there, you would see the poles. It took me awhile before I was able to drive by and not get teary-eyed.”
Then the day came, in the fall of 2020, when Erich and Morgan clearly saw the path forward.
“I really feel like it’s such a God thing that happened,” Morgan said. “We weren’t even sure how the program worked or who paid for it. Are there scholarships? Is this something we can even do?”
Erich, who works as a plant manager at Mississippi Power, reached out to Tom McNeal, manager of Alabama Power’s Workforce Development Program, for guidance. Tom connected Erich with Sherrica Hunt, director of Institutional Advancement at Bishop State, who was looking for ways to help veterans who wanted to enroll in the January line worker training class but did not qualify for traditional financial assistance.
“They were not covered under WIOA funds,” Hunt said. “We wanted to do our due diligence in providing resources for those students who have served our country so we reached out to Alabama Power. Tom McNeal said he had a family who was talking about supporting the program. That’s when the Holderer family came into the picture.”
From there the process of establishing the scholarship and raising funds began.
“It was emotional,” Morgan said. “It took me a couple of weeks to even find it in myself to even do the fundraising – how to put into words what we wanted to do, but I finally said, ‘If we’re going to make this happen, I have to put emotion aside and get this done.'”
Within two weeks, family and friends of John helped Morgan and Erich surpass their commitment of $2,000.
“We felt like at the time we would only be able to support one, but the more we put it out there on social media, the more money just kept pouring in,” Erich said. “In the end, we were able to do two scholarships.”
“I had so many people message me saying they will make this recurring and asking how to send the money,” Morgan added. “I feel like a community effort came together.”
Morgan and Erich had the chance to meet the scholarship winners shortly before Christmas.
“They were so appreciative,” Erich said. “We were able to share what John’s life was about and the legacy we wanted them to carry forward in his honor. I think they definitely accepted that and they were so thankful. It was an incredible event.”
Chad Smith was one of the scholarship winners. After serving three years in the Army, Smith returned home in 2011 and started a landscape business with the hope of one day working as a lineman at Alabama Power. He says he could not have afforded to enroll in the program without the scholarship.
“There’s not enough words to thank them,” Smith said. “It’s an opportunity that was going to away for me and I don’t know if I would have tried again. I feel like it was destined. Thank you is not enough for a whole new life.”
Hunt says connections like this are what makes her and her colleagues proud of the work they do at Bishop State.
“It was one of those moments you felt everything align together,” she said. “You felt that purpose and opportunity just came together to provide resources for these students. In our field and with the foundation, these are moments that make us proud.”
Morgan and Erich say they plan on offering this scholarship every year.
“We hope to do this every year to honor John’s legacy and help folks out that need a little bit of help to help others,” Erich said. “John loved four things: his family, the Marines, his Alabama Power family and helping people. I wanted the scholarship recipients to know that. They seemed like they wanted the same thing. They missed that feeling that they had when they were in the military – that camaraderie and that ability to help people when they’re in need, which, when there’s a storm and the power is out, folks need help. We’re happy to be able to help two gentlemen to move forward with their careers to do the same thing that John would have been doing.”
Morgan says the messages she and her family continue to receive from John’s friends are immensely encouraging.
“It helps his kids and it lets us know that his 30 years on Earth made a huge impact that we didn’t even know how he made people feel,” Morgan said. “We knew he was a special guy but to hear it first-hand from so many people, it was special. I feel proud to be John’s sister.”
To learn more about the John Burge Veteran Memorial Scholarship or to make a donation to the fund, contact the Bishop State Community College Foundation at bishopstatefoundation.org.