— from Madeline Danielson, Project PAL Coordinator —
Twenty years ago, Project PAL was started by Beth Anderson of OPALCO and a few community volunteers so Co-op members could give each other a hand up with electric bills in tough times. This gets done by rounding up the power bills to the next whole dollar amount and donating the difference. The round ups average $6 a year per account. The average PAL grant is $150 for the heating season.
Right now there are 3,100 members who round up their bill every month for Project PAL. You know who you are and every penny from your round up contribution goes right to somebody’s bill who applied for help. The 2014-2015 heating season is over and together we helped 220 low income members keep the power on through this last winter, and 116 of those members were seniors or disabled. That is an amazing, uplifting impact on our whole community. As the Project Pal coordinator and an OPALCO Member Services Rep. I want to thank you for rounding up your bill. Thank you for easing the stress of making it through the winter. Thank you for being the funding backbone of Project PAL.
If you think you are one of the people who round up but are not sure, please call OPALCO at 376-3500 and anyone there would be happy to check, to set up your account for round up or answer any questions about the program. I find it inspiring what we can do together.
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