PPL Montana awards grants to 17 nonprofit organizations throughout the state

Seventeen Montana organizations with projects ranging from restoring a historic theater in Deer Lodge to providing Braille-equipped laptops for blind students in Great Falls will receive a total of $100,000 from PPL Montana’s http://www.pplmontana.com Community Fund this fall.

“In tough economic times, when nonprofit groups can have a harder time raising the money they need, PPL Montana is particularly happy to be able to provide assistance from our grant program to help these groups improve the quality of life across our state,” said Lisa Perry, manager of community affairs for PPL Montana.

Since 2005, PPL Montana’s Community Fund has awarded $800,000 to more than 130 organizations that have used the grants to address quality-of-life issues related to education, the environment and economic development.

“This program is our expression of thanks for doing business in this great state,” Perry said.

An 18-member, statewide advisory board, which includes civic and business leaders as well as PPL Montana employees, meets twice a year to determine how best to distribute the funds.

PPL Montana will award another $100,000 in grants to Montana nonprofit organizations through its Community Fund in spring 2009. The deadline for applications is Jan. 31. Only online applications are accepted. The application will be available beginning Nov. 15 by clicking here.

This fall’s PPL Montana Community Fund grant recipients are:

* Family Service Inc., Billings, $7,559 — To provide about 235 school backpacks, tailored for specific ages and grade levels, for underprivileged children.

* Hellgate Writing Center, Missoula, $1,000 — To help fund a volunteer tutoring program for elementary schoolchildren in Missoula.

* Montana Conservation Corps., Bozeman, $10,000 — To support volunteer opportunities across Montana for teens to teach civic responsibility and build an appreciation for the outdoors.

* Montana Conservation Science Institute, Missoula, $2,500 — To help establish a pilot program for blind children called “Camp Eureka!” The program will establish an outdoor camp for six children and provide them with audio learning tools.

* Montana Natural History Center, Missoula, $7,950 — To provide mechanical upgrades to improve safety on the buses used for field trips as well as some scholarship opportunities for underprivileged children to learn about science and the world around them.

* Montana Outdoor Science School, Bozeman, $5,000 — To fund an outreach program, “Ways of the West,” in Gallatin County and surrounding areas. This curriculum promotes outdoor science programs, environmental literacy and creative problem-solving.

* Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, Great Falls, $10,000 — To purchase Braille-equipped laptops so students can type and print documents in Braille.

* MSU Foundation for Montana Watercourse, Bozeman, $9,332 — To support the annual Water Summit, led by Montana Watercourse, which gathers students and teachers from across the state for training on water management and watershed protection.

* Rialto Community Theatre, Deer Lodge, $6,400 — To provide insulation and roof repairs to the historic theater, damaged in a 2006 fire. The restoration of the Rialto Community Theatre, on the National Register of Historic Places, has received overwhelming community support.

* Roy Ambulance Service, Roy, $9,315 — To help purchase a hydraulic gurney to safely move patients in and out of the ambulance. This is the final step in a fundraising drive, which raised $140,000 and purchased a new ambulance to serve this small community in Fergus County.

* Sanders County Hunter Education, Thompson Falls, $2,100 — To purchase sturdy hunter orange safety vests, with the PPL Montana logo, for students who complete a hunter safety education course.

* Stillwater Community Hospital, Columbus, $3,864 — To purchase a Pediatric Trauma Care Cart to equip medical staff to safely and quickly treat an injured child.

* Thompson Falls Public Schools, Thompson Falls, $3,000 — To purchase a Smart Board for the Junior High School Technology Center. The interactive tool allows teachers to project computer images on a white board that’s visible to an entire class.

* Virginia City Preservation Alliance, Virginia City, $2,500 — To help the alliance establish interpretive signs throughout the historic city, the original territorial capital of Montana. The signs would complement National Register of Historic Places plaques already in place.

* Writer’s Voice of the Billings YMCA, Billings, $5,500 — To provide matching funds for a National Endowment for the Arts grant to support “The Big Read.” This literacy program will focus on teenagers in the Yellowstone Valley and surrounding areas who will read Jack London’s novel “The Call of the Wild.”

* Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, $5,000 — To support the Young Artists Gallery, which features artwork from students in the Billings area, including the Crow Indian Reservation. The formal setting to display and appreciate art enables young artists to build confidence and inspires learning.

* Yellowstone Western Heritage Center, Billings, $8,980 — To help fund Phase 2 of the ECHOES Project, which records stories from the people of the Northern High Plains and Yellowstone River Valley. PPL Montana funded Phase 1 last year, which allowed historians to travel throughout eastern Montana to record oral histories from senior residents. Phase 2 will fund four listening stations, which will be part of a three-year evolving exhibit that shares these stories, photos and interviews.

PPL Montana provides safe, reliable energy from coal-fired power plants at Colstrip and Billings, as well as 11 hydroelectric plants along West Rosebud Creek and the Missouri, Madison, Clark Fork and Flathead rivers. It has a combined generating capacity of more than 1,200 megawatts and has offices in Billings, Butte and Helena. PPL Montana and its 500 employees are dedicated to Montana and its communities, supporting educational, environmental and economic development programs across the state. PPL EnergyPlus operates a trading floor in Butte that markets and sells power for PPL Montana in wholesale and retail energy markets throughout the western United States. PPL Montana and PPL EnergyPlus are subsidiaries of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL).

http://www.pplmontana.com/news/102908+Community+Fund+Grants.htm