TAR HEEL TEACHERS RECEIVE $195,000 AT BRIGHT IDEAS EDUCATION GRANT AWARDS LUNCHEON
Raleigh, N.C. (November 11, 2013) - -
North Carolina’s Touchstone Energy cooperatives will host the 11th annual Bright Ideas education grant awards luncheon on Friday, Nov. 15 at the Dail Club in Carter-Finley Stadium.
At the event, the electric cooperatives will distribute $195,000 in Bright Ideas grants to 150 teachers from the Triangle and surrounding areas.
“The Bright Ideas luncheon is an opportunity for us to recognize local teachers whose commitment to education and their students has earned them grant funding for a
learning project that would otherwise be paid for from their own pockets or not be possible,” said Nelle Hotchkiss, senior vice president of corporate relations for the
North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives.
North Carolina’s own Molly Barker, a globally recognized leader in girl’s education and development, will be the keynote speaker. A four-time Hawaii Ironman triathlete,
Barker used her background in social work, counseling and teaching, along with research on adolescent issues, to found the Girls on the Run program in Charlotte in 1996.
Today, there are Girls on the Run councils in more than 190 cities across North America serving over 150,000 girls and women each year.
Teachers attending the luncheon are from Alamance, Bladen, Caswell, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Lenoir, Moore, Nash,
New Hanover, Orange, Pender, Person, Pitt, Sampson, Wake, Wayne and Wilson counties. The luncheon, which is part of a statewide celebration of Bright Ideas month, will
begin at 11:30 a.m. The Dail Club is located within Carter-Finley Stadium at 4600 Trinity Road, Raleigh, N.C. 27607.
The Bright Ideas program awards grants of up to $2,000 to North Carolina teachers for creative, classroom-based projects. Since 1994, North Carolina’s Touchstone Energy cooperatives
have awarded more than $8.5 million in Bright Ideas grants to Tar Heel teachers, reaching more than 1.5 million students in subjects including math, reading, science and technology,
music and the arts. This year alone the electric cooperatives will distribute approximately $600,000 to deserving teachers statewide.
Sponsoring the grants recognized at the awards luncheon are Central Electric Membership Corporation (EMC), based in Sanford; Four County EMC, Burgaw; North Carolina EMC, Raleigh;
Piedmont EMC, Hillsborough; South River, Dunn; and Wake EMC, Wake Forest.
The Bright Ideas education grant program is an example of the electric cooperatives’ commitment to community. North Carolina’s electric cooperatives serve 2.5 million people in
93 of the state’s 100 counties.
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