BEMC awards community grants

Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation (BEMC) recently announced the winners of 2008 BEMC Community Grants.

Now in its sixth year, the program has awarded more than $147,000 to help local agencies and groups with worthwhile programs providing vital educational, social, cultural and economic development services to citizens in the BEMC service area.

Grants are made to organization, not individuals, and range from $500-$2,500. This year’s grants totaled $22,465 to 16 area groups.

“This year we had nearly 60 applications to review,” said Judy Gore, vice president of customer services. “Each year the need is far greater than our funds will stretch, but we do our best to cover a broad range of requests. We congratulate this year’s recipients and strongly encourage those who did not receive a grant to be sure and try again next year.”

The 2008 grant recipients for Brunswick County are: Oak Island Senior Citizens; Habitat for Humanity; Girl Scouts N.C. Coastal Pines; North Brunswick Chamber of Commerce; Brunswick County, State of the Schools Forum; The First Tee of Brunswick County; Lower Cape Fear Hospice, “Heart, Mind & Soul” 2008 End-of-Life Conference; Brunswick County Master Gardeners, 2008 State Master Gardeners Conference; and South Brunswick High School Band Boosters.

BEMC started the Community Grants program in 2003 to expand its community commitment beyond the highly successful Bright Ideas grant program for teachers.

BEMC Community Grants are designed to help those agencies and groups that step forward to provide services in four key areas: family services, civic and community programs, cultural and arts programs, emergency services and economic development activities.