Snapping Shoals EMC will be awarding more than $50,000 in grants this fall to a number of teachers from the schools that the electric co-op serves in Rockdale, Newton and Henry counties through the co-op’s Bright Ideas program.

The grants are designed to help teachers who wish to extend educational opportunities and activities for students by developing student interests and abilities. Teachers have innovative ideas about how learning can be made more exciting, effective and interesting and how curriculum can be expanded to meet the needs of particular groups or individual students; however, resources are sometimes not available for special instructional opportunities. The Snapping Shoals EMC Bright Ideas grants are designed to assist teachers in the planning and implementation of these ideas. Teachers should contact their county’s Board of Education to apply for a Bright Ideas grant.

The grants will be allocated from unclaimed capital credit funds. Capital credits, or margins, are the revenues that are over and above the cost of providing service for customer-owners of an electric co-op, such as Snapping Shoals, for a specific year after financial obligations have been met. Snapping Shoals EMC routinely refunds these capital credits to its members when its board of directors determines it is appropriate to do so. These unclaimed funds are used to support such programs as the Snapping Shoals EMC scholarship program, the Bright Ideas program and other community projects.

Snapping Shoals Electric Membership Corporation is a consumer-owned electric cooperative providing electric service to approximately 95,000 homes and businesses in an eight-county area. Most of the utility’s service area is in Newton, Rockdale and Henry counties. Portions of DeKalb, Butts, Walton, Morgan and Jasper counties are also included. The company’s headquarters is on Brown Bridge Road in Newton County.