Avery County Educator Receives Grant For Innovative Teaching Project

For Immediate Release

Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager: 1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener

Boone, North Carolina (November 9, 2005) – An Avery County educator was among several area teachers awarded Bright Ideas grants on Wednesday for their winning ideas for innovative classroom learning projects.
Kimberly Tufts, of Cranberry Elementary School, was among five teachers and their teammates awarded grants totaling more than $4,000 by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation. The electric cooperative’s annual Bright Ideas grants were presented during a luncheon at Broyhill Inn and Conference Center at Appalachian State University (ASU).

Tufts and her teammates Drema Morris and Donna Burnop received a check for $506 to implement their project titled “Global Neighbors: Asia.”

The project will benefit 65 seventh graders at Cranberry Elementary School. Through different hands on projects that will take place throughout the year, students will learn about various Asian cultures by utilizing various pieces of literature, listening to Asian music, studying artifacts, eating Asian foods, and seeing and making their own costumes.

“The projects will help students expand their world view as well as help them understand the impact Asia has had on our country now and in the past,” said Tufts.

Bright Ideas is an academic grants program sponsored by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation in conjunction with the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and its 26 other member electric cooperatives. These grants enhance traditional academic learning by funding innovative scholastic projects that go beyond available school funding.
Other local winners of the grants were from Watauga County and included:

Terri Miller, of Green Valley Elementary School, won a $390 grant for “Next Generation Composers”.
Josephine Sorrell, won a grant for $936 for “Boosting Brains with Big Books”.
Kathy Butler, Sondra Edwards, Jeanie Hawkins, and Ashley Johnson, of Green Valley Elementary School, won a grant for $1,444 to implement “5th Grade Choral Festival”.
Ann Donadio and Jennifer Gray, of Cove Creek Elementary School, were awarded $1,025 for “Community Reading Group”.

Each September, Blue Ridge Electric seeks applications from area educators and principals serving grades K-12 in public schools. For the 2005-2006 school year Blue Ridge Electric received 54 Bright Ideas grant applications from schools in its service territory of Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Avery and Wilkes County. Funds totaling $19,004 are being awarded to 19 classroom teachers to directly benefit thousands of area students and their teachers, schools and communities. Blue Ridge Electric is celebrating its 12th year of offering Bright Ideas grants as part of its support and commitment to education. Since 1994, the cooperative has awarded nearly $213,000 in Bright Ideas grants that has impacted more than 64,000 students.

To learn more about the Bright Ideas grants program, visit Blue Ridge Electric’s web site at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com or contact Blue Ridge Electric at (828) 264-8894 and ask for Grey Scheer, director of community relations.