CITIZEN STAFF REPORT
The Kentucky Power Foundation has awarded a $25,000 grant to Appalachia Reach Out, a Martin County-based organization dedicated to serving families across Eastern Kentucky through housing support, community outreach and essential services.
Grants and contributions are not included in customer rates, the foundation said in a press release.
Kentucky Power employees also stepped up as volunteers to help rebuild a home destroyed by flooding earlier this year.
“This support is helping us continue the vital work of getting families back into their homes before the hard winter sets in,” wrote ARO Executive Director Dwayne Mills in an email to Kentucky Power. “In the past two months, ARO has helped four families return home, and the generosity of the Kentucky Power Foundation is making it possible for us to assist several more.”
While the Foundation grant strengthens ARO’s overall mission, Kentucky Power employees have been “boots on the ground,” painting and preparing one of the homes currently being restored.
Ryan Howell, external affairs manager for Kentucky Power, said the combination of financial support and employee labor is expediting recovery efforts for families still struggling after repeated flood events.
“We want our customers to know they are our top priority,” Howell said. “The Kentucky Power Foundation is proud to support ARO and the important work they are doing. As volunteers, we are honored to contribute to the hands-on hard work required to ensure we are making a real impact by demonstrating the ways we put our customers first.”
The Kentucky Power Foundation, part of the American Electric Power Foundation, awards grants within communities served by Kentucky Power. The American Electric Power Foundation is funded by American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) and its operating subsidiaries, including Kentucky Power. The Foundation provides a permanent, ongoing resource for charitable initiatives in communities served by AEP and initiatives outside AEP’s 11-state service area. As an independent, nonprofit philanthropic organization, the Foundation is funded solely through shareholder dollars.
The Foundation focuses on improving lives through education from early childhood through higher education in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and by meeting basic needs for emergency shelter, affordable housing and the elimination of hunger. Other Foundation support may be offered to protect the environment, promote health care and safety, and enrich life through art, music and civic vitality.
Kentucky Power, headquartered in Ashland, provides service to 162,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties and is an operating company in the American Electric Power system, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States.