Blue Ridge Electric Awards Educators Grants for Innovative Teaching Projects

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

Lenoir, North Carolina (November 13, 2006) – Grants totaling nearly $5,000 were awarded to six local educator teams today by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation during a luncheon ceremony at Bo’s Restaurant to honor the Bright Ideas grants 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.
Winners of the grants are:

Janice Smith, of Hibriten High School, for “Bravo for Books.” The project will benefit approximately 240 students enrolled in Spanish courses at the high school by providing Spanish literature. Book clubs in which Hispanic and English speaking students could read and discuss issues raised through the literature will be formed. The grant totaled $1,200.
Libby Huff, of Granite Falls Middle School, for “Eco Power” to all the middle school students. The grant was for $1,300 and will enable students to experiment with alternative energy sources as an exciting way to learn about science and technology. Students will have an opportunity to build and test models, including solar vehicle models.
Janet Watson Fore and Misty Key, of Hudson Middle School, for “Can you Fathom the Distance?” to benefit advanced math students in 7th and 8th grades. The grant was for $750 and will help students track their distance using customary and metric measurements while increasing their heart rates and improving their physical fitness.
Christy Owens, Sarah Maney, Jennifer Lewis, Larry Adams, and Melissa Redman, of Baton Elementary School, for “Murphy to Manteo: Trekking across NC from the Mountains...to the Piedmont…to the Coast” to benefit 4th grade students. The grant totaled $500. Using pedometers, students will accumulate laps on the walking track and calculate daily into miles. Each class marker is moved across a 562 mile journey and as target cities are reached, students earn clues related to NC’s regions, cultures, economy and geography.
Andrea Gatwood, of Sawmills Elementary School, for “Powerful Puppets” to benefit Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd gradt students. The grant totaled $363. Students will use puppets to act out skits explaining the concepts of Character Education and will be participating both as audience and as puppeteers.
Donna Miller, of Sawmills Elementary School, for “Read with Me, Mom! (jLea Conmigo, Mama’)” to benefit approximately 9% of the entire school population who would have the opportunity to enjoy more reading at home with their non-English speaking parents The grant, which totaled $806, will be used to purchase “Read with me” story bags that will be recommended to Hispanic and at-risk students for check out to use at home with parents.

Blue Ridge Electric is celebrating its 13th year of offering Bright Ideas grants as part of its support and commitment to education. Since 1994, the cooperative has awarded nearly $231,000 in Bright Ideas grants that has impacted more than 65,000 students. Through the Bright Ideas grants program cooperatives across the state has provided over $4 million of support for local education initiatives.

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 and ask for Grey Scheer, director of community relations.

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