BREC funds supplies, teacher grants
As a new school year begins, Broad River Electric Cooperative is supporting local schools, teachers and students to help set them up for success.
These efforts are made possible in part by the generosity of members enrolled in Operation Round- Up, which rounds up their bill to the next dollar to generate charitable funds. This small change adds up to approximately $100,000 in annual donations to local charitable causes.
School supplies support
Before the new school year, BREC helped elementary schools and afterschool programs in its service area purchase classroom supplies and other materials that would benefit their students.
Checks for $500 each, totaling $11,000, were presented to 20 elementary schools and two afterschool programs across Cherokee, Spartanburg and Union counties.
Cherokee County schools: B.D. Lee, Blacksburg, Corinth, Draytonville, Grassy Pond, Limestone Central, Luther Vaughan, Northwest.
Union County schools: Buffalo, Foster Park, Jonesville, Monarch.
Spartanburg County schools: Cannons Campground, Cooley Springs-Fingerville, Cowpens, Fairforest, Inman, New Prospect, Pacolet, Pauline-Glenn Springs.
Afterschool programs: Kids Upstate, Upstate Family Resource Center.
Bright Ideas Grant winners and their projects
For the 2023-2024 academic year, Broad River Electric awarded a total of $14,151 in Bright Ideas Grants to fund 15 classroom needs and projects led by teachers in local schools.
The cooperative recently celebrated the grantees with an awards dinner at the Broad River Electric Cooperative headquarters. These local educators are dedicated to providing enriching educational experiences to our community’s students.
Here are the Bright Ideas grantees:
Cherokee County
B.D. Lee Elementary School
Bradlee Cooper, Physical Education, operational support.
Blacksburg High School
Misty Cobb Greene, High School Advancement Via Independent Determination (AVID), student field trips to tour college campuses.
Blacksburg Middle School
Jessica Anne Bowen, Science, classroom supplies and experiment kits for science lab classes.
Corinth Elementary School
April Smoak, Kindergarten, updated materials for her classroom library for reading and science.
Gaffney High School
Suzanne Key Crisp, English Language Arts with second language learners, interactive activities for students.
Betsy Cook Jolliff, AVID, for operational support for etiquette lessons, cooking lessons, fire safety and auto safety.
Traci Leshea Dill, Theatre Arts, portable stage platforms for traveling competitions.
Darin Pall, 11th Grade, cork boards to display students’ work.
Wendy D. Tindall, Forensic Science, crime analysis kits to create life-like crime scenes.
Institute of Innovation
Catherine Allen, High School Transition and Career Readiness, equipment for student-run specialty coffee shop.
Michael Mullinax, Welding teacher, 50 digital welding textbooks.
Northwest Elementary School
Jessica Ruffner, Language Arts, updated books for classroom library.
Spartanburg County
Clifdale Middle School
Ele L. Hill, Math, purchase of Scholastic Math magazines.
Amy E. Johnston, Music, purchase of tuners and contact mics for school band.
Daniel Morgan Technology Center
Jamey Thompson, Media Technology teacher, mobile light kits for video shoots.