This past year marked a memorable milestone for one of North Carolina’s electric cooperatives longest-standing community initiatives that continues to impact local communities—the Bright Ideas education grant program celebrated 30 years.

In 2024, North Carolina’s electric cooperatives awarded more than $760,000 in Bright Ideas education grants, supporting 680 innovative learning projects. Collectively, the program has now awarded $16.5 million to fund more than 15,400 projects, empowering four million students across the state since 1994.

Commitment to community is at the root of the cooperatives’ foundation, and that includes investing in education and the students that represent the future of the state.

“These grants allow the cooperatives to help with the education of so many children through our winning teachers’ innovative classroom projects,” said Wendy Wood, manager of communications and community relations at Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation. “While some projects may involve one classroom, many involve multiple classes across a grade level, and some even have schoolwide impact. Our staff looks forward to presenting the checks to our winning teachers each year and seeing the faces of the students light up with smiles.”

While celebrating this three-decade milestone, it’s important to remember how Bright Ideas first started.

A conversation sparks change

In 1994, Brunswick Electric employee Judy Gore was in the check-out line at K-Mart in Whiteville, North Carolina behind a local teacher who was purchasing school supplies for a project. After striking up a conversation with the teacher, Gore learned the educator was using her own money to pay for the materials—something that was becoming common for teachers funding nontraditional projects.

At the time, Gore was already helping develop a new program to assist students in the co-op’s service area. That interaction with a local teacher at K-Mart inspired an idea: a program to help educators fund projects without having to dip into their own pockets. In May 1993, Brunswick Electric awarded its first “Partnerships for Solutions” mini-grants of $250.

The rest of North Carolina’s electric cooperatives recognized the value in what Brunswick Electric was doing for their local teachers, and in August of 1994 the statewide Bright Ideas education grant program was born.

“To see how the Bright Ideas grant program has grown—starting here at Brunswick Electric and eventually becoming a statewide initiative across North Carolina—is amazing,” said Brookes Versaggi, manager of member engagement and communications at Brunswick Electric. “Ms. Gore’s original Bright Idea to support our local educators has now helped millions of students in our state take their learning to new levels and create experiences that will last a lifetime.”

Commitment to education

Each year, the impact of the Bright Ideas grant program continues to grow, and so does the creativity of the projects educators submit for funding.

From sustainability gardens to elephant DNA testing to a full-scale apiary, these grants have helped North Carolina students explore their curriculum in new and exciting ways for 30 years.

“The idea that I’ve been able to build this over three years now—and this is my third time winning—I can make it bigger and bigger,” said Whitney Williams, a teacher at Grady A. Brown Elementary in Hillsborough and 2024 Bright Ideas winner from Piedmont. “Every time I’m awarded another grant, it energizes me to do more.”

Applications for Bright Ideas grants open in April and run until September each year. All 26 of North Carolina’s electric cooperatives select Bright Ideas winners, with grants available in all 100 counties. North Carolina K-12 educators can learn more and apply at ncbrightideas.com.