Four Gainesvillea-based organizations included in June round of JEMC Foundation grants

JEFFERSON - The Jackson EMC Foundation Board of Directors awarded a total of $81,955 in grants during their June meeting, including $73,200 to organizations serving area residents.<br /> <br /> *$15,000 to Good Samaritan Health Center in Lawrenceville, to offer evening and weekend operating hours that give the working poor access to healthcare without having to take unpaid time off from work and risking their employment.<br /> <br /> *$15,000 to Interlocking Communities, a Lawrenceville grassroots community service organization focusing on education, to install support technology at new location, replace 10-year-old textbooks/workbooks, and hire two additional part-time classroom instructors for new location's smaller classrooms.<br /> <br /> *$10,000 to I Still Have a Dream Foundation, an Athens-based non-profit that provides those who have had brain and spinal cord injuries in Banks, Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Madison and Oglethorpe counties with transportation and supplies, to help purchase and equip a handicapped accessible van that will allow the organization to serve more patients.<br /> <br /> *$10,000 to Gainesville Action Ministries, a network of 17 Hall County congregations that work to prevent homelessness by providing emergency financial, food and clothing assistance, and children's services, to provide rent assistance.<br /> <br /> *$7,000 to Angel House of Georgia, a Gainesville recovery residence for women with alcohol and/or drug addiction, to cover program fees that will enable indigent women to participate in the twelve-month program.<br /> <br /> *$6,000 to Guest House to provide low income clients with access to the Gainesville non-profit senior day care center, which offers high quality medical attending, personal care, occupational therapy and safety to older seniors and those suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia.<br /> <br /> *$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.<br /> <br /> *$3,200 to Friends of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in Athens to produce calendars used as learning tools by Garden Earth Naturalist Clubs, after-school science clubs that encourage youth ages 8-10 to study and explore natural habitats.<br /> <br /> *$2,000 to the Path Project, a Gwinnett non-profit dedicated to helping at-risk children close the achievement gap and find the right path for their lives, for college student interns that will lower the organization's staff to child ratio at its summer camp.<br /> <br /> The Jackson EMC Foundation has put more than $8.7 million back into local communities since it was founded in 2005, funding 868 grants to organizations and 293 grants to individuals. Cooperative members participating in Operation Round Up have their monthly electric bills rounded up to the next dollar amount, with the "spare change" going to the Foundation. <br /> <br /> 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/foundation-guidelines or at local Jackson EMC offices. Applicants do not need to be a member of Jackson EMC.<br />

http://accesswdun.com/article/2014/6/276514