Planters EMC provides grant for SJVFD

From left, Danny Bennett, president of South Jenkins Volunteer Fire Department, accepts a check from John Roy Clifton, Operation Round Up board member, as Horace Weathersby, Planters EMC board member, and Matt Brinson, Planters EMC general manager, look on with other members of the SJVFD. (Photo contributed)

South Jenkins Volunteer Fire Department (SJVFD) is among the first three community organizations to receive funding from Planters Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) via the coop's new Operation Round Up® program.

Beginning in November, Planters EMC began "rounding up" their members' power bills to the next dollar with the difference earmarked for donation to non-profit community organizations. The charitable initiative is designed to support worthy projects throughout the electric cooperative's seven-county service territory. Participating Planters EMC members voluntarily contribute an average of 50 cents per account per month, or $6 per year. If all 16,000 member accounts at Planters EMC participate, a total of $96,000 per year can be raised to help local citizens via community programs.

One such program is SJVFD, which received a $2,498 grant from Planters EMC at a presentation on Jan. 30. The money will go towards purchasing a high volume pump that allows firefighters to retrieve water from lakes, ponds, swimming pools or other water sources in the absence of hydrants.

"This auxiliary pump will allow us to pump water out of any body of water we have access to," said Danny Bennett, president of the Board of South Jenkins Volunteer Fire Department, which formed last year. "This way, we can take the pump to retrieve water and keep our fire truck fighting fire. Cities have hydrants and we don't have that capability throughout the rural areas, but we do have a lot of ponds and things like that we can retrieve water from."

The newly-formed volunteer fire department depends on fundraising efforts to support its operations, according to Bennett who said the gift from Planters EMC made purchase of the auxiliary pump possible.

"We probably wouldn't have gotten this pump to provide this level of protection without help from Planters EMC," Bennett said. "Planters has provided a great service to our community by helping us out with this, and we appreciate them more than they know."

Other community organizations receiving premier Planters EMC Operation Round Up grants include Keep Screven Beautiful and Burke County Emergency Management Agency.

"We've implemented Operation Round Up because we've seen how it's worked at other coops and how it's benefited their communities," said Planters EMC General Manager Matt Brinson. "This program has done so much for others, and we want to do the same by investing in programs and projects that touch our communities."

Operation Round Up funds are tax-deductible donations administered by the Planters EMC Operation Round Up Inc., a board of community leaders appointed by and independent of the Planters EMC Board of Directors. The Operation Round Up board evaluates requests for Operation Round Up grants and meets quarterly to determine which organizations receive funding.

Applications for the next round of disbursements are available on-line at www.plantersemc.com or may be obtained at Planters EMC's Millen office at 1740 Highway 25 North. Deadline for applying for the next group of grants is April 13.

Planters EMC is a memberowned cooperative providing electricity and related services to 11,500 consumers in Burke, Jenkins, Screven, Bulloch, Effingham, Emanuel and Richmond counties.