Mike Nielsen
“I’m a System Process Optimization Manager at the accounting department. I’m retired Navy, retired in 2022—Chief Electronics Technician. I served on a couple ships and a couple deployments in Afghanistan, and this is our day cleaning up Oaklawn Cemetery. We try to do this twice a year, once in the spring, once in the fall, just to help out the community with a cemetery that just needs attention.”
“Today we’re working with the Pensacola Chief Petty Officers Association. We’ve had the organization of ‘Lawn Rangers’ come out and help us out today. And then, several employees of Uniti from across the company come out to help us with weed eating, lawn mowing, cleaning gravestones, picking up trash, and anything we can do to help out and keep this place looking good. We start on the road and just kind of work as much as we can.”
“At Uniti Fiber, we have various, what they call, diversity and inclusion groups. Our diversity and inclusion group is ‘Proud 2 Serve’—a group of veterans and supporting personnel so people that may have family that are in the military, are in the military or just simply want to be able to support those that are or have served.”
“When I joined with Uniti and was hired on, I met a bunch of veterans at the company, they brought me into ‘Proud 2 Serve’, and it gave me a great chance to meet people, like-minded individuals, that have the same background and history and that same inclination to try to serve the community and the country. It’s kind of a guiding principle for a lot of people that are called to the military, and this is another opportunity.”
“Scattered throughout the Oaklawn Cemetery, there’s a lot of veteran graves. I’ve seen World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and several that aren’t tied to events, but it just gives a chance to give back to the community. That sense of giving and a sense of purpose is very important, I know for myself as a veteran, it really makes a difference. The people of the community stop and say thank you.”
“To see it go from just overgrown to as we start uncovering headstones that probably haven’t seen the light of day. Some of the ones last time, I think one gentleman told us it had been a couple of years since he had seen his father’s headstone, so that means a lot. Uniti gives us a unique opportunity to give back that I really appreciate in a company and I appreciate having a DIG and brethren like this that let me come out and be part of something bigger than myself.”
*The testimonial transcript has been edited from the original video content to provide an improved reading experience.
