Bright Ideas Grants Awarded to Local Educators by Blue Ridge Electric (Watauga)
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383, Ext. 3213; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Boone, North Carolina (November 13, 2008) – Grants totaling nearly $5,000 were awarded to five educator teams today by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation during a luncheon ceremony at Broyhill Inn and Conference Center to honor local Bright Ideas grant recipients.
Bright Ideas is an academic grants program sponsored by Blue Ridge Electric in conjunction with the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation and its 26 other member electric cooperatives. Bright Ideas grants help further traditional academic learning by funding innovative scholastic projects that go beyond available school funding.
Watauga County grant winners are:
Natalie Oransky and Kelly Sheets, of Two Rivers Community School, for “A Kid’s Guide to the High Country.” This grant of $759 will benefit 20 fourth-grade students who will create a brochure by this title as a way to study geography, culture, and history of the High Country as part of their larger study of North Carolina.
Kathy M. Moore and Susan Trew, of Blowing Rock Elementary School, for “Math: Get the Picture?” to benefit 120 students. This grant of $485 will fund a project to use picture books concentrating on different aspects of math, from operations to algebra, geometry, measurement and probability. Kits including the books and materials for grades K-12 will be available for check-out.
Sarah Miller and the Watauga High School Pioneer Playmakers, of Watauga High School, for “Traveling to Understanding: Playmakers Go to the US Holocaust Museum” to benefit 18 students. This grant of $1,260 will benefit students who are performing a Holocaust play for the NC Theatre Conference One-Act Festival. The students will receive an authentic experience through traveling by train to the Holocaust museum to gain a more realistic and empathetic understanding about the actions and events that their characters will portray in their production.
Carmen Scroggins, of Watauga High School, for “¡Viva el español en voz alta!” to benefit 20 Spanish students. This grant of $754 will allow students to use MP3 players with voice recorders to hear, interpret, and express themselves in Spanish in order to be users of the language in a broader context than just the classroom.
Susan Ross and Alise Lipps, of Newland Elementary School, for “Greenspiration” to benefit 366 students. The grant of $1,470 will provide an environmental awareness program designed to introduce students to recycling of organic materials. The exceptional children’s class will team with 3rd graders to collect lunchroom scraps, fill a compost tumbler, turn it daily, and place compost in standing bins.
Blue Ridge Electric is awarding Bright Ideas grants totaling $18,029 to 19 different academic projects that will benefit thousands of area students, teachers, schools and communities. The cooperative is celebrating 15 years of offering Bright Ideas grants as part of its support and commitment to local education. To date, Blue Ridge Electric has awarded more than $268,000 that has improved the educational experience for more than 75,000 students. North Carolina electric cooperatives joining together have awarded more than $4 million in Bright Ideas grants to benefit students all across the state.
To learn more about the Bright Ideas grants program, visit Blue Ridge Electric’s web site at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com or contact your local Blue Ridge Electric office.
