Electrical line students in Escanaba hang lights for the holidays

ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) - Electrical line students in Escanaba helped the community one bulb at a time by sprucing up a community favorite.

Marco Juarez is a student at North Country Electrical Line and Heavy Equipment School. On Wednesday, the school held class in downtown Escanaba where Juarez and his fellow students had a lesson on bucket truck operations and dressed the blue spruce at Center Court for the holidays.

Juarez said he didn't think he would be decorating for the holidays for a class assignment

"No, no, no. Not at all. This is one thing I definitely didn't expect to go do," Juarez said after he'd been working on the tree with one of his instructors. "I was just in the bucket helping him out and just wrapping around the Christmas tree, lights around the tree."

School Director Josh Barron said the partnership with the Escanaba Downtown Development Authority gave students a great learning experience.

"We got asked if we wanted to be a part of setting up Christmas lights on the tree. And so, for us, I said, 'Absolutely. Let's go ahead and do it,'" Barron said.

DDA Director Craig Woerpel said having the electrical line students decorate the city's tree helps the whole community. Barron agreed.

"What better way to put their skills to a test then going up and down and around getting hose lights in the tree and making it look nice," Barron said. "And it's about kind of giving back to the community and being able to see this lit up for the next, you know, six weeks, whatever it is. It's going to be super exciting for the community. Exciting for us. It's a win-win and the students are having a blast doing it as well."

Juarez graduates from the program on Friday. He said Wednesday was a great way to spend one of his last days in class.

"It's not book work, which I'm happy about," Juarez said. "Normally we spend half the day reading our linemen's book and the other half is outside. Now, we get to spend all of our day outside."

Students at Escanaba Upper Elementary are making ornaments for the tree. To see Juarez's work firsthand, head to the tree lighting celebration on Nov. 26 at 6 p.m.