Bright Ideas winners are: First Row: Jeannie Ransone from Sanderson High School, Julie Schmidt from Ballentine Elementary School, Molly Bostic from Heritage High School, Karen Waller from Timber Drive Elementary, Danielle Clark from Holly Ridge Elementary School; Second Row: Jennifer Whipple-Rivera from Millbrook High School, Erin Boecke from Holly Ridge Elementary, Cynthia Linton from Centennial Campus, Phil Price, chief operating officer and assistant general manager of Wake Electric, Fred Keller, manager of member and energy services of Wake Electric, Patsy Hester from East Cary Middle School, Lynn Wallace from Millbrook High School, Chris Bradford, Assistant Principal for Wendell Middle School standing in for Kelly Lister; Third Row: Beth Maynor from Wendell Elementary School, Angela Stephenson from Leesville Road, High School, Cherry Jackson from Lockhart Elementary, Seth Clark from Holly Springs High School, Brian Mannette from Heritage Middle School, Walton from Holly Ridge Elementary School, Trish Gibbons from Holly Ridge Elementary School
Wake Electric announced that 24 teachers in Granville, Johnston, Wake and Vance counties have been awarded Bright Ideas grants, totaling more than $50,000 in grant monies. Twenty of those teachers are from the Wake County Public School System. The grants will be used for a variety of class-room programs throughout the school year.“Wake Electric is a big supporter of education,” said Darnell Alford, Business Operations Specialist and Bright Ideas coordinator for Wake Electric, “and we are proud to once again award Bright Ideas grants to deserving local teachers.”Wake Electric offers Bright Ideas grants to individual teachers and administrators at schools operating in counties served by Wake Electric.The Bright Ideas winners will be honored on November 10 at a banquet held at the The Dail Club, in Vaughn Towers at N.C. State University’s Carter-Finley Stadium.Bright Ideas, sponsored by North Carolina’s electric cooperatives (which includes Wake Electric), strives to improve education in North Carolina’s classrooms by awarding grants to teachers in grades K-12 for innovative, classroom-based projects that would not otherwise be funded.
The Bright Ideas grant program has funded more than 7,000 projects and awarded more than $7.3 million in grant monies to deserving North Carolina teachers. The overall Bright Ideas program reached more than 103,000 students last year alone and has touched more than 1.3 million students over the life of the program.
Wake Electric’s Bright Ideas grant program has awarded more than $580,000 to area educators since 1994. To learn more about the grant program, visit www.ncbrightideas.com or Wake Electric’s website at www.wemc.com/brightideas.aspx.
Grant winners from Wake County for 2011 include:
Bright Ideas Grant Winner | School | Name of Grant | County | Amount Awarded |
| Cherry Jackson | Lockhart Elementary | “School of Ember” | Wake | $1,481.44 |
| Karen Waller | Timber Drive Elementary | “GA-GA for Global Awareness” | Wake | $2,750.00 |
| Angela Stephenson | Leesville Road High School | “Building Successful Teen Habits” | Wake | $945.04 |
| Brian Mannette | Heritage Middle School | “Heritage Students Against Bullying” | Wake | $2,717.45 |
| Beth Maynor | Wendell Elementary School | “Communication at It’s Best: Speech Therapy with an iPad” | Wake | $1,528.87 |
| Patsy Hester | East Cary Middle School | “Robots in the Math Classroom” | Wake | $3,000.00 |
| Jeannie Ransone | Sanderson High School | “Save A Life!” | Wake | $2,278.89 |
| Molly Bostic | Heritage High School | “Integrating the Environment with Handheld Technology” | Wake | $2,748.00 |
| Seth Clark | Holly Springs High School | “Lovin' Languages” | Wake | $2,899.32 |
| Julie Blas | Lincoln Heights Elementary School | “Expanding Expression” | Wake | $229.00 |
| Elizabeth Koch | Martin Middle School | “Seeing is Learning” | Wake | $1,326.85 |
| Sally Walton | Holly Ridge Elementary School | “Guys Read” | Wake | $3,000.00 |
| Cynthia Linton | Centennial Campus | “Around the World Short Stories” | Wake | $2,351.00 |
| Jennifer Whipple-Rivera | Millbrook High School | “Let’s Share Strategies” | Wake | $1,499.00 |
| Julie Schmidt | Ballentine Elementary School | “Lights, Camera, Glow!” | Wake | $2,335.95 |
| Michelle Conti | Brassfield Elementary School | “1-to-1 iPads in the Classroom” | Wake | $2994.00 |
| Bonnie Galarde | Governor Morehead School for the Visually Impaired | “Let There Be Light” | Wake | $850.80 |
| Kelly Lister | Wendell Middle School | HERE (Helping Everyone Receive an Education) | Wake | $872.20 |
| Lynn Wallace | Millbrook High School | “Green Solar Village” | Wake | $3,000.00 |
| Danielle Clark | Holly Ridge Elementary School | “Preparing for a Technological Future” | Wake | $2,762.69 |
The funds for the Bright Ideas grants come from WEMC members who agree to round up their electric bill to the nearest whole dollar through the Operation RoundUp program. For example, if the bill is $190.91 – the bill will be rounded up 9 cents to $191.00. These pennies add up to major dollars. Partial funding also comes from the North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC), located in Raleigh, NC. The NCEMC consists of a family of corporations formed to support the state’s 27 electric cooperatives.
Wake Electric is a non-profit electric utility serving over 35,000 members in parts of Franklin, Durham, Granville, Johnston, Vance, Nash, and Wake counties.
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