Raleigh, N.C. —Forty-seven teachers from the Triangle Area are among the 150 educators being honored Thursday, November 17 at the 3rd annual Bright Ideas education grant awards luncheon at the Hilton North Raleigh. North Carolina’s Touchstone Energy cooperatives are sponsoring the event. Brian Freeman, North Carolina Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year from Robeson County, will deliver the luncheon’s keynote address.
Wake Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) of Youngsville, NC will award $23,651 to fund 21 Bright Ideas projects in Wake and Durham counties. Piedmont EMC of Hillsborough, NC, will award $13,321 to fund eight Bright Ideas projects in Wake and Durham counties. A list of the winning teachers and their projects is attached.
The luncheon is part of a statewide Bright Ideas Week celebration that will occur Nov.14-18. During November, North Carolina’s Touchstone Energy cooperatives will award more than $540,000 in Bright Ideas education grants to the state’s teachers. Bright Ideas awards up to $2,000 to individual North Carolina teachers for innovative classroom based projects. In its 12th year, Bright Ideas has awarded more than $4.5 million and funded projects in mathematics, the arts and sciences that have touched more than 800,000 students. The electric cooperatives’ Bright Ideas program is the only education grant program exclusively for North Carolina’s classroom teachers.
The 150 teachers being honored at the luncheon will be awarded more than $145,000 in Bright Ideas grants. Sponsoring the grants are Touchstone Energy cooperatives: Wake Electric Membership Corporation (EMC), Wake Forest; Piedmont EMC, Hillsborough; Central EMC, Sanford; Four County EMC, Burgaw; Lumbee River EMC, Red Springs; NCEMC, Raleigh and South River EMC, Dunn.
The Bright Ideas education grant program is another example of North Carolina’s Touchstone Energy cooperatives’ commitment to community. The electric cooperatives serve 2.5 million people in 93 of the state’s 100 counties.