Nine Students Receive Round-Up Scholarships
Posted on July 1st, 2021
First Electric awarded nine $2,000 college scholarships to recent high school graduates living in the cooperative’s five districts. The scholarships were funded by the co-op’s Operation Round-Up program.
Scholarship recipients for 2021 are:
- Tuesday Melton of Bauxite; Benton High School
- Julio Acosta of Bauxite; Bauxite High School
- Diego Rubio of Heber Springs; Heber Springs High School
- Abigail West of Ida; Concord High School
- Lee Glover-Langdon of Lonoke; Lonoke High School
- Eliza Smith of Austin; Cabot High School
- Aleigha Smith of Searcy; Searcy High School
- Avery Mahan of Houston; Bigelow High School
- Jessalyn Ahrens of DeWitt; DeWitt High School
Since 2002, the program has awarded over $164,500 in college scholarships.
small change.
BIG DIFFERENCE.
Operation Round-Up allows First Electric members to help support worthwhile projects in our communities and scholarships for students.
Participating in Operation Round-Up is easy. Each month, First Electric simply “rounds up” the electric bill of participating members to the next highest dollar. For example, a member’s monthly bill of $52.73 would be rounded up to $53, with the additional 27 cents going to the Operation Round-Up Trust fund. Donations are tax deductible, and participating members are sent a summary of their yearly contributions in December and January.
The Operation Round-Up Trust fund is overseen by a nine-member board of community members, who are selected to serve by First Electric’s board of directors. The trustees meet quarterly to review donation applications and select the recipients. First Electric pays all administrative expenses for the program, which allows all “rounded up” monies to be used for nonprofit donations and college scholarships. Since its inception in 1998, the Operation Round-Up program has awarded more than $1.29 million in donations to nonprofit organizations and college scholarships.
Meetings are held the first week of each quarter. The deadlines for nonprofit donation requests will be as follows:
1st Quarter deadline – March 15
2nd Quarter deadline – June 15
3rd Quarter deadline – September 15
4th Quarter deadline – November 15
Members can enroll by calling 800-489-7405, using our app or stopping by any First Electric office.