SSEMC recently awarded $15,000 to Henry, Rockdale and Newton County teachers, as well as $10,000 to DeKalb County Schools, as part of the cooperative’s Bright Ideas program. 

Each fall, Snapping Shoals EMC awards grants to teachers from the schools that the electric co-op serves in Rockdale, Newton, Henry and DeKalb counties through the co-op's Bright Ideas program. The grants, which are allocated from the co-op's unclaimed capital credit funds, are designed to help teachers who wish to extend educational opportunities and activities for students by developing student interests and abilities.

Teachers have innovative ideas about how learning can be made more exciting, effective and interesting and how curriculum can be expanded to meet the needs of particular groups or individual students; however, resources are sometimes not available for special instructional opportunities. The Snapping Shoals EMC Bright Ideas grants are designed to assist teachers in the planning and implementation of these ideas.

As a non-profit organization SSEMC’s capital credits, or margins, are the revenues that are over and above the cost of providing service for the electric co-op’s customer-owners. These are required by lending institutions to establish financial strength for loans. Snapping Shoals EMC routinely refunds these capital credits to its members when its board of directors determines it is appropriate to do so. Despite all of our efforts to locate past members, there are always those whom we cannot locate to return their patronage capital. Legislation passed in 2005 allows EMCs to retain these unclaimed capital credits that historically would be turned over to the state. The unclaimed funds are used to support Snapping Shoals EMC’s various educational programs, as well as other community and economic development projects.