Eleven area organizations will benefit from the generosity of Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative members by receiving an Operation Round Up grant this fall.
The grant committee met on Oct. 13 to review applications for the cooperative’s charitable giving program. It selected which ones to fund from a pool of money that grows as co-op members voluntarily round up their bills to the nearest even dollar. SVEC assists with a corporate contribution.
Below is a list of the October 2021 Operation Round Up grant recipients, which will receive $18,000 in total.
Augusta County
MaDee Project: For financial support to pediatric cancer patients and their families.
Renewing Homes of Greater Augusta: To provide life-impacting repairs and accessibility modifications for one of its elderly, disabled homeowners.
Page County
Page Free Clinic: To offset expenses for equipment and volunteer support for bringing a Remote Area Medical clinic to Page County. These remote clinics are a major nonprofit provider of free pop-up clinics for those in need.
Rockingham County
Any Given Child Shenandoah Valley: For a comic mural residency with Charlottesville-based author and artist Laura Lee Gulledge. One of the major initiatives of Any Given Child is to provide live arts experiences for K-8 students in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County schools.
Blue Ridge CASA for Children: To support an additional advocate manager. Blue Ridge CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) recruits, trains, supports and supervises volunteer advocates to help children in the area navigate through difficult and traumatic times.
Central Virginia Habitat for Humanity: To support adding a critical home repair program, defined as improving the safety of homes and addressing issues of deferred maintenance that contribute to a home’s deterioration, diminished functionality, or loss of value.
Pilot Club of Harrisonburg: To promote brain safety and awareness, including the purchase and distribution of 80 helmets for the Salvation Army Santa program and dolls to assist residents with dementia at two local facilities.
Shenandoah Valley Junior Golf Foundation: To support general programming such as Overcoming Barriers, which takes young people with special needs to various facilities to participate in sports and activities.
Skyline Literacy: To increase access to basic literacy (reading, writing and math), ESL and citizenship instruction for adult native-born and foreign-born residents of Rockingham and Shenandoah counties.
Winchester/Frederick County
Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging: To provide meals for any resident age 60 or older free of charge at its senior centers. The centers provide the opportunity to fellowship and offer programs related to nutrition education, healthy aging information, exercise, and other current events.
Sinclair Health Clinic: For essential medical supplies to meet the healthcare needs of its growing patient population. Sinclair Health Clinic is the only affordable primary care provider for uninsured residents of Winchester and Frederick and Clarke counties.
The total amount awarded since Operation Round Up began in 2018 is just shy of $140,000. More information is available at svec.coop/ORU.
—Report by Preston Knight, Public Relations Coordinator, Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative