Broadband provider sets aside grant money

TEXARKANA — One of the city’s broadband communications providers is taking applications for a share of $250,000 in grants for nonprofit organizations.

Sparklight will accept applications through Oct. 31 for its fall Charitable Giving Fund.

Grants will be made available across communities served by Sparklight and other Cable One brands.

The company will concentrate on organizations that work in at least one of three areas — education and digital literacy; hunger relief and food insecurity; and community development.

“Last year the company awarded grants to nearly 60 nonprofits, including organizations serving the homeless, providing child advocacy, offering senior assistance and supplying food to those in need,” Sparklight stated in a news release.

The Charitable Giving Fund is an extension of the company’s existing corporate social responsibility efforts, which include:

■ Supporting national organizations dedicated to advancing education and diversity, including the Emma Bowen Foundation and the National Diversity Council.

■ Supporting the mission of Special Olympics, which provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports, as well as health, arts, and leadership and advocacy programs for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.

■ Planting trees through the Arbor Day Foundation on behalf of customers who switch to paperless billing. By the end of 2023, the company will have planted 130,000 trees in its markets and national forests.

■ Raising funds for Feed My Starving Children and collecting food for local food banks. Since 2018, the Cable One family of brands has donated more than 46 tons of food to local food banks and nearly $400,000 to address food insecurity.