Georgia Magazine - July 2011 - (Page 25)

Eastman-based Ocmulgee EMC employee Phil Bearden, third from left in front, participates in a Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting for a newly opened business. of Troup High School in LaGrange. “Schools are so often in a position of focusing on what states are measuring that it’s often at the expense of teaching these life lessons that are just as important. Whenever we can offer extra things to our students like the Leadership Institute, it broadens their horizons and helps ﬁll that gap.” % Kathy Allgood helped found Laurens Youth Leadership 12 years ago while serving as vice president of community affairs for Oconee EMC in Dudley. As leading volunteers, she and fellow program director Jennifer Bryant have equipped some 424 students with tools to become effective leaders through training sessions, ﬁeld trips and other activities such as Habitat for Humanity projects. “Oconee EMC values the communities in which we serve,” says Bryant, who is Oconee’s marketing and community relations coordinator. “One of our core values is commitment to community. It is important to Oconee EMC for its employees to be the hands and feet in its communities.” Since 1997, the Cobb EMC Women’s Task Force has awarded more than $69,000 in scholarships. Cobb EMC and 37 other EMCs in Georgia take part in the annual Washington Youth Tour, an EMC-sponsored weeklong civics and culture lesson in the nation’s capital. The Youth Tour has cultivated lifelong leadership skills for hundreds of Georgia high school students like Daniel Hannoush, a 2005 Cobb EMC Youth Tour delegate who’s since graduated from Georgia Tech in chemical engineering and works for General Mills in Covington. “This leadership experience is still on my resume and (Continued on page 26) REBECCA MCWILLIAM New digs for a family in need Co-op community assistance takes many unexpected forms. Employees at Diverse Power in LaGrange helped replace the home of members Jeremy and Jennifer Williams and their children, Josie and Jacob. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” a reality TV show that gives new homes to the less fortunate, chose the Williams family for one of its projects. Local high school Athletic Director Jeremy Williams had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, a terminal illness of the nervous system, and his son, Jacob, has spina biﬁda, a birth defect that involves incomplete development of the spinal cord. The family’s modest home was in a state of disrepair and not wheelchairaccessible. News of the Williams family’s selection brought tears to the eyes of Scott Sawyer, marketing services coordinator for Diverse Power. “He [Jeremy Williams] coached my son Seth in high school and really does a lot for those kids,” Sawyer says. July 2011 % Jeremy and Jennifer Williams were featured in the season ﬁnale of the ABC hit show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in May 2010 after their Pine Mountain Valley home was demolished and a new house built by volunteers, including employees from Diverse Power in LaGrange. Above: The Williams family pets patrol the yard in front of their new home. On short notice, Sawyer and other Diverse Power employees volunteered to work long nights and install new underground electric utilities during the weeklong project to make the new wheelchair-accessible home a reality. 25 More online at www.georgiamagazine.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - July 2011

Georgia Magazine - July 2011
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Picture This?
Georgia News
Calendar
Currents
Georgia’s Energy Outlook
Special Energy Report
A Jewel Against the Sea
“A Special Blessing”
Your Own Backyard
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Gardens
Georgia Cooks
Cookbook of the Month
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - July 2011