Georgia Magazine - November 2010 - (Page 16)

COMPILED BY VICTORIA SCHARF DECASTRO Georgia 4-H Gala a sparkling success Nearly 350 Georgia 4-H alumni and supporters attended the 2010 Georgia 4-H Gala at the Renaissance Waverly hotel in Atlanta Aug. 14. Georgia Electric Membership Corp. in Tucker was a presenting sponsor of the gala, which raised more than $175,000 for 4-H Project Achievement, a program that has served Georgia’s young people since 1904. David Ralston, speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, served as honorary chair, and M.K. “Curly” Cook, a major promoter of the 4-H livestock program, was presented with the 4-H Lifetime Achievement Award. The Georgia 4-H Club, founded in 1904, has a long history of youth development and reaches more than 156,000 young Georgians. The 4-H organization’s mission is to build leadership, citizenship and life skills in youth throughout the nation. For more on how you can help support 4-H, visit www.georgia4h foundation.org. —Gale Cutler, Georgia EMC Georgia EMC President and CEO Paul Wood accepts the presenting sponsor award from Anne Woolf Sapp, co-chair of the 2010 4-H Gala. REA: An enduring legacy Electric co-ops commit to serve their communities From their origins in the 1930s, the state’s electric membership corporations (EMCs) have brought electric power into homes throughout rural Georgia and enriched those communities. Guided by the Seven Cooperative Principles, Georgia’s electric coops take the seventh principle to heart: “While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work to improve the quality of life in the areas they serve.” The cooperatives use multiple means to accomplish this goal, whether by hosting electric safety demonstrations in elementary school classrooms, or by working with local leaders on community and economic development strategies. In the early years, cooperatives helped their members immensely by teaching them how to operate new electrical appliances. Home economists employed by the co-ops traveled to community and church gatherings to demonstrate cooking with electric ovens and sewing on electric sewing machines. The cooperatives employed electrification advisors who helped members arrange appliances as they remodeled their kitchens. Today’s electric cooperatives continue to sponsor FFA and 4-H club events, as well as other educational activities, from partnering with local schools to support classroom instruction to providing scholarships for high school students headed to college. Many of Georgia’s EMCs use Operation Round Up or similar charitable programs with consumers’ pocket change accumulated to fund local charities or educational initiatives. Georgia’s EMCs this year celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA, now Rural Utilities Service, or RUS), which was established on May 11, 1935, by Franklin D. Roosevelt to bring power to rural America. —Jackie Kennedy More online at www.georgiamagazine.org NRECA 75 16 Electric cooperatives in Georgia routinely host high-voltage safety demonstrations for schoolchildren in their service areas. At a safety demo earlier this year, linemen Pat Albright (pictured),Tommy Cook and Donald Gilpin, of Carroll Electric Membership Corp. in Carrollton, explained to children at a local sheriff’s office youth camp the dangers of touching a downed power line and flying a kite too close to a line. The linemen demonstrated how a hotdog burns when touching an energized line and explained its similar effect on human skin. Students also learned the difference between being shocked and being electrocuted. GEORGIA MAGAZINE KELLY HESTER / CARROLL EMC BLANE MARABLE http://www.georgia4hfoundation.org http://www.georgia4hfoundation.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - November 2010

Georgia Magazine - November 2010
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
A Tour of Honor
Making it Pay in Georgia
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Georgia Cooks
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - November 2010