Gainesville groups among latest JEMC Foundation grant recipients

JEFFERSON - The Jackson EMC Foundation Board of Directors awarded a total of $100,000 in grants RECENTLY, including $74,000 to organizations serving area residents.<br /> <br /> *$15,000 to Hebron Community Health Center in Lawrenceville, a nonprofit organization providing medical and dental care to low-income, uninsured Gwinnett residents, to provide diagnostic follow-up testing, eye exams and prescription glasses, and prescription medication, glucose monitors and glucose strips.<br /> <br /> *$15,000 to the Tree House, a children's advocacy center working to reduce child abuse in Barrow, Jackson and Banks counties, for the Family Services Supervised Visitation Program, which provides a neutral, child-friendly environment for visits between children in foster care and their parents to enable them to maintain and enhance family bonds and provide a safe and nurturing environment for their children when reunited.<br /> <br /> *$13,500 to Mercy Health Center, an Athens ministry using 700 professional and lay volunteers to provide primary and specialty medical care, dental and pharmacy services for low income uninsured patients in Barrow, Clarke, Jackson and Madison counties, to help fund the services of a nurse practitioner for new patient appointments and supplies to serve those patients.<br /> <br /> *$12,000 to the Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy to purchase materials and provide instructors for basic literacy classes for adults 16 and older and GED preparation classes for students who have not completed high school. The 2011 U.S. Census reports that about 22 percent of Hall County residents are not high school graduates and 10 percent have less than a 9th grade education.<br /> <br /> *$10,000 to St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Matthew Conference in Winder to help provide needy individuals and families with food, prescription medication and rent assistance. The volunteer organization is largely funded through parishioners' monthly donations, and serves a growing client base in Barrow County.<br /> <br /> *$7,500 to Choices Pregnancy Care Center in Gainesville for ultrasound services to check for a pregnancy's viability and eliminate the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy, and for sexual integrity presentations to middle and high school students in Hall County and Gainesville City Schools that teach the emotional and physical consequences of making poor sexual health choices.<br /> <br /> *$1,000 to Exceptional Kids Athletics, a Snellville non-profit that uses occupational therapists and former professional or college-level players as coaches along with youth volunteers to provide six-weeks of sports training to children ages 4-21 with physical or cognitive disabilities.<br /> <br /> Since its founding in 2005, the Jackson EMC Foundation has put nearly $9.1 million back into local communities, funding 896 grants to organizations and 299 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.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2014/10/280596