Consumers Energy Employee Receives Award for Helping Senior Citizen

LANSING, Mich., June 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A Consumers Energy employee credited with saving the life of a Shiawassee County resident was recently recognized with an award from the State of Michigan.

Toni Fabus, a Consumers Energy meter worker, received a Gatekeeper of the Year award from the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging (OSA) and Commission on Services to the Aging for actions she took to rescue a senior citizen and for referring the Elsie resident to vital resources available through senior services.

The recognition is awarded annually to a Consumers Energy employee for providing an exceptional example of identifying and assisting at-risk older adult Michigan residents.

Fabus is based in the Owosso Service Center and has 35 years of experience with Consumers Energy. While on a service call last spring, she heard screams coming from inside a home with locked doors. The screams sounded very desperate, said Fabus, so she searched until she found a window she could open. She found an 86-year-old woman inside who had fallen several hours earlier, was injured and unable to move. She comforted the injured woman until help she had called arrived.

In addition, Fabus referred the woman to the OSA as she has been trained to do through the Gatekeeper program. The agency was able to assist the senior with housing services that enabled her to remain living independently.

"Toni Fabus's thoughtful actions are a great example of how the Gatekeeper program can make a positive impact on the lives of older adults across the state," said Kari Sederburg, OSA director. "I want to thank Toni for her commitment to helping those in need and Consumers Energy for helping to make this important program possible."

The Gatekeeper program is made possible through a partnership that began with Consumers Energy and Michigan's Aging Network in 1987, and the award presentation took place at a breakfast event in May during an agency board meeting in Lansing.

In the past 27 years, Consumers Energy employees have referred more than 6,000 older adults to the Gatekeeper program.

Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest utility, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and electricity to 6.5 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

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LEARN MORE: More information about the Michigan Office of Services to the Aging is available at:  www.michigan.gov/osa

Find out about senior protections available at Consumers Energy, including more about the Gatekeeper Program at: www.consumersenergy.com/Content.aspx?id=5355

PHOTOS: View and download photos, including the one above, from Consumers Energy's media gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/consumersenergy/sets/72157634342591265/

For more information about Consumers Energy, go to www.ConsumersEnergy.com, join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ConsumersEnergyMichigan and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/ConsumersEnergy.

SOURCE Consumers Energy