Grant, faith community provide assistance for students
A $6,000 grant from the North Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (NGEMC) is providing funding for clothing, shoes, coats, school supplies, hygiene items, extracurricular and graduation fees for Gordon County students. The grant, funded through NGEMC’s Operation Round Up program, will be split evenly between all of the schools in Gordon County with $600 going to each school.
Operation Round Up is a program that provides funding for local charitable projects carried out in NGEMC’s service area. It is paid for by electric users in Catoosa, Chattooga, Floyd, Gordon, Murray, Walker and Whitfield counties whose bills are rounded up to the next highest dollar each month. The monthly contributions can range from 1 cent to 99 cents, with most customers averaging about 50 cents a month.
“This grant is going into our advocate accounts, which every school in the county has this year,” Molly Townsend, a school social worker and homeless liaison for Gordon County Schools, said. “Previously, only some of our schools had those but last year we made sure that each school had one.”
Advocate accounts, according to Townsend, are now being funded by local churches, the faith community, and grants like the one provided by NGEMC. The partnership with local churches, created through the Gordon County Community Outreach Program, began last year after the school system re-evaluated the way grant funds were spent in the community.
“We realized our community really wanted to get involved to help serve our kids. They always want to donate clothes or shoes, so we developed committees to help us fund those accounts every year,” Townsend said. “The accounts are strictly used for basic essential needs. Typically, they’re needs that can’t just be met with community resources, and they remove significant barriers to education.”
Churches that expressed interest in getting involved were grouped into “outreach committees” that hold quarterly meetings to discuss classroom and student needs in the community, as well as how to fundraise for those needs. They also discuss what to do and how best to help students in the event of emergencies, like house fires.
“If something like that happened and a family lost their home, we would send out an email to those committees to make them aware of it so that they can offer help,” Townsend said. “We never give out identifying information on our students, but we act as that middle person to say, ‘Hey, we have a student with this need and if you can or want to help, let us know so we can make sure the student gets taken care of.’”
Townsend said that her goal for this year is to continue expanding the Gordon County Community Outreach Program so that even more students can be served through it.
Any local businesses or organizations interested in getting involved are encouraged to reach out to Molly Townsend at (706) 879-5292.