Showing love for our communities
PEC continues community support through the pandemic
Serving and supporting our communities is an important part of our culture and the cooperative difference. Although the pandemic has prevented PEC from hosting in-person events, we’ve continued to give back through a number of new and creative programs. We’ve also found safe ways to continue existing programs and support within our communities. This Valentine’s Day, see how PEC continues to show love for our communities.
- Through our Masks for Members program, we helped improve access to masks in the communities we serve to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. With the help of our PEC members, we donated more than 6,000 masks to our local hospital partners to distribute to those in need.
- To continue supporting our educators and to help our members teaching students at home, we launched PEC’s EmpowerU program. This free educational program provides teachers, students, and parents virtual access to lesson plans, videos, worksheets, activity booklets, coloring sheets, and more.
- We’ve continued our scholarships program for local students. Applications are now open through March 22, to graduating high school seniors. This year, for the first time ever, PEC is also awarding a scholarship to a qualifying adult seeking to further their education.
- Through PEC’s Power of Change program, and with the help of our members who round their bills to the nearest dollar, we provided more than $50,000 in PEC Community Grants in 2020. These funds help strengthen our communities by supporting area nonprofits in fulfilling their important missions. Nonprofits can apply until April 1 for the spring 2021 cycle.
- In 2020, our PEC employees donated $265,300 to the United Charities program, to support more than 230 nonprofit organizations.
- PEC employees also helped brighten the 2020 holiday season for children and families across PEC’s service territory by donating $4,300 to help support local toy drives.
- In an effort to preserve our natural wildlife and protect our environment, we installed our first butterfly way station at PEC headquarters. The way station is certified by Monarch Watch and helps to promote monarch butterflies and other pollinators. We are also working to expand the program to other PEC sites and partners.
To learn more about our community support, please visit pec.coop/gives.