Educators across four counties were excited to see someone holding a Bright Ideas sign entering their school.

A total of 34 applications were chosen this year for funding totaling $60,449. These grants will affect the lives of at about 11,055 students in our communities this year alone!

“There is no price you can put on a quality education—supporting teachers is the best investment we can make in the future,” said VP of Member Services & PR Catherine O’Dell.

The decision of which applications to fund is never an easy one with 80 Bright Ideas Grant applications submitted for consideration. Teachers were able to apply for grants up to $2,500 per grant. Since it’s 1994 inception, the Cooperative has awarded $1,357,416.43. Collectively during this time, cooperatives statewide have awarded $14.3 million to schools, impacting the lives of 2.8 million students.

Grant requests range from technology to science kits, math manipulatives to books, encompassing all subject matters. The selected teachers represent 19 schools from those four counties. Winning applications were chosen based on the innovative presentation of their idea and a well-written application.

Funding is typically around $50,000, but the Bright Ideas program received a $10,000 grant from the Cooperative’s Operation Round Up program. This provides an even greater opportunity for instructors to bring new learning experiences to their classrooms. For more information on the program, please visit sremc.com/bright-ideas or ncbrightideas.com.

South River EMC is a locally-owned and operated electric cooperative, which provides electric service to 46,000 homes, farms and businesses in parts of Harnett, Cumberland, Sampson, Johnston and Bladen counties.