JEFFERSON - The Jackson EMC Foundation, a charity funded by the electric cooperative’s members through their donations to the Operation Round Up program, has awarded grants totaling $63,200 to seven agencies serving Hall and Lumpkin County residents.
* $15,000 to the Children’s Center for Hope & Healing in Gainesville to provide 30 children who have been sexually abused with therapy to reduce trauma symptoms such as nightmares, bed wetting, anxiousness, depression, anger, fatigue and self-hatred.
* $15,000 to the Fragile Kids Foundation to help fund the purchase and installation of critical medical equipment not covered by insurance, such as electronic wheelchair van lifts, for special needs children in the counties that Jackson EMC serves.
* $10,200 to Junior Achievement of Georgia – Northeast District to help cover the costs, such as workbooks and activities, of a program that teaches school students the fundamentals of the private enterprise economic system and provides them with practical hands-on experience in the economics of life.
$10,000 to the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center, a multi-use science, history, culture, heritage and environmental facility located on a 700-acre campus in Buford, to allow students from low-income families to attend interpretative, hands-on field studies and educational programs.
* $5,000 to the Girls Leadership Summer Program in Gainesville, an intensive six-week course for girls ages 13-17 that establishes mentoring relationships between the girls and women in the minority community, develops leadership and collaboration skills, and promotes the development of new leaders in the community.
* $5,000 to the Rotary Club of Gainesville for its Accessibility Ramp Program, to purchase materials and supplies to construct solid, safe accessibility ramps as the primary entrance to the homes of local citizens with disabilities or other mobility challenges.
* $3,000 to the Rainbow Children’s Home, a Lumpkin County long-term care shelter for abused and neglected teenage girls, to create a visitation room with the capability to record supervised visits that help develop recommendations for reunifying children with their family.
Since the Jackson EMC Foundation began in 2005, it has funded 653 grants to organizations and 235 grants to individuals, putting more than $6.7 million back into local communities. The Operation Round Up program allows participating electric cooperative’s members to have their monthly electric bills rounded up to the next dollar amount.
Any individual or charitable organization in the ten counties served by Jackson EMC (Clarke, Banks, Barrow, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison and Oglethorpe) may apply for a Foundation grant by completing an application, available online at http://www.jacksonemc.com/Guidelines-for-Funding.106.0.html or at local Jackson EMC offices. Applicants do not need to be a member of Jackson EMC.
