Looking for a way to “give back” this holiday season? Great Lakes Energy (GLE) customers are encouraged to consider joining the GLE People Fund community give-back program.
The Oceana County Historical & Genealogical Society (OCH&GS) is pleased to announce they were recently granted $1,950 from the program and plan to have a large part of its vintage audio and video files digitized. Once digitized, these historic and irreplaceable recordings will be safe from the ravages of time and the elements and be accessible to more people.
“I was at the Society one day this fall when I noticed a couple of baskets with old cassettes, DVDs, CDs and even a reel-to-reel film. Because of ever-changing technology, we don’t even have the equipment available to replay or enjoy these files anymore even if we wanted to. It was then I knew we needed to do something to preserve these oral histories and pictures,” said OCH&GS board member Sharon Hallack. “The idea for this project coincided nicely with the GLE October grant round. Many Oceana County organizations have been the recipients of this program, and we would encourage any GLE customer who is not familiar with or not a member of their round-up program to consider joining. No customer will ever ‘donate’ more than $6 a year if they sign up.”
The GLE website further states, “Great Lakes Energy members help to enhance the quality of life for people in our communities through the People Fund. Bills of participating members are ‘rounded up’ to the next dollar amount, and grants are awarded to non-profit organizations for charitable activities throughout our service area. Grants are awarded by three independent boards of directors representing three geographical regions – south, central and north. There are no overhead costs – 100 percent of the money collected is returned to our communities. By allowing us to ‘round up’ your monthly electric bill to the next dollar, you put your small change to work right in your own community. All of the money collected goes back to grant recipients. All contributors are entered into two annual drawings where we give away six $100 Great Lakes Energy bill credits. This contest is our small way of saying ‘thanks’ to every Great Lakes Energy member who supports the People Fund. The People Fund has awarded more than $4.5 million to local charitable groups since 1999.”
“Once these priceless records are digitized, we plan to provide links to them on our website for our members to enjoy and learn from anywhere and anytime,” concluded Hallack.
For more information, people are encouraged to visit www.gtlakes.com/people-fund.
