VECustomers Share Programs Marks $3 Million in Local Community Grants

Volunteer Energy Cooperative’s VECustomers Share program has now donated more than $3 million in community service grants to local non-profit organizations.

The program is operated by an independent board of directors who fund grants to support communities throughout VEC’s 17-county customer service area. The funds are donated by VEC customers who allow their electric bills to be rounded up to the next whole dollar amount each month – and the spare change goes to fund the grants.

“Each customer who participates donates an average of $6 per year to the program. But those nickels, dimes, and quarters can add up fast,” said VEC President/CEO Rody Blevins. “The program began in October of 2001 and over these eight years we are very pleased to have supported so many genuinely worthwhile causes that have made a big impact in our local communities.”

Each month the program funds about $30,000 in grants that are distributed across VEC’s 17-county service area. The grants are typically distributed proportionately by county. But on rare occasions board members have voted to use an entire month’s donations for a single cause. Board members opted to do that to assist with rebuilding efforts after tornadoes swept through Cumberland County and again when floods ravaged parts of Rhea County.

But typically grants are smaller and have gone to fund a wide variety of community service efforts such as hunger relief, adult literacy, emergency response, historic preservation, the arts, recreation, education support, healthcare support, and a wide variety of other community support efforts.

The grant that pushed the program over the $3 million mark was a $1,500 grant that was awarded to the Fentress County Emergency Management Agency. Jeff Galloway, the agency’s director was on hand to receive the check.

“Fentress County is a very rural and very under-funded county. We depend heavily on grants like these to provide emergency services,” Galloway said. “Federal grants are almost impossible to get. We just feel very grateful and very blessed to have received this grant.”
Don Padget is the volunteer board member who represents Fentress County on the VECustomers Share Board of Directors.

“I’m very pleased to be a part of this program,” Padget said. “It is the best program I’ve seen. It puts more money back into the community than any other program. I think we have a board that is very dedicated and contentious and I’m impressed with how the money is used throughout the VEC service area.”

Photo Caption: VECustomers Share Board Member Don Padget, right, who represents Fentress County, presents a grant check to Jeff Galloway, the director of Fentress County Emergency Management Agency. The grant put VECustomers Share over the $3 million mark in grants funded to date.