Jackson EMC Foundation awards grant to local school

JEFFERSON - More than $85,000 in grants was awarded recently by the Jackson EMC Foundation - including more for the Junior Achievement program at a Hall County school.

Grants totaling $76,300 were made to non-profit organizations and $8,746 to needy individuals.

Jackson EMC started Operaton Round Up last year. It is funded by member-consumers who "round up" their power bills to the next highest dollar. Applications are available on line at the Jackson EMC Web site, by phone or at any Jackson EMC office.

Organizational Grant Recipients:

*$5,000 to the Athens Community Council on Aging's Meals on Wheels, a program that provides a hot meal each weekday to homebound individuals, allowing the program to feed an additional five people for a year.

*$9,100 to the Boys & Girls Club of Barrow County, to implement the "Triple Play" program that teaches young people how to understand nutrition, make better food choices and engage in daily physical activities for the health of their growing bodies.

*$10,000 to the Dream House for Medically Fragile Children in Lilburn, to help fund the Family for Keeps program that provides support, education and skills for foster parents who provide care to children who depend on life support, medication, therapies or equipment to live.

*$7,200 to Junior Achievement of Georgia, to offer the Junior Achievement program and materials to 240 Hall County students in 12 Tadmore Elementary School classes, providing the students with an understanding of the free enterprise system so that they can become better-educated consumers, employees, citizens and leaders.

*$15,000 to Mercy Health Center in Athens, which uses a combination of funding and volunteer medical help to provide free medical and dental care, to purchase a dental x-ray unit that will be used to provide dental care to the working poor, unemployed and/or disabled and the homeless.

*$15,000 to the Rotary Club of Madison County, to purchase pressure-treated lumber and materials to construct approximately 35 handicapped ramps for area residents, selected on the basis of need, who have suffered an illness or accident and are having difficulty leaving their home.

*$15,000 to the Single Parent Alliance and Resource Center in Norcross, to develop and print their Frontline Parenting Series, a program for single parents designed to increase communication and decrease the stress that can lead to violence, with curriculum ranging from traditional parenting classes to cross-gender classes that promote understanding between mothers and sons.

Individual Grant Recipients:

*$2,250 to a disabled cancer patient, for emergency dental work.

*$2,996 to a woman whose gas furnace no longer works and is using her oven to heat her home, for the purchase and installation of a heat pump.

*$3,500 to a family whose son's rare brain disorder has left him wheelchair-bound, for the down payment on a handicapped accessible van.