Nov 12, 2024 | Community Involvement
Powering our communities goes beyond delivering the safe and reliable electricity you depend on every day. We don’t just work in our communities; we also live and raise our families in cities and towns across our territory.
Here are just a handful of events that helped our communities throughout the year:
We started 2024 in the Lehigh Valley by reading to children at Brigadier General Anna Mae Hays Elementary School for Read Across America and Black History Month events, fostering the importance of education for our local children.
During Earth Month, our employees planted trees in Harrisburg, Bethlehem and across Lycoming County to help preserve the environment.
In June, more than 60 of our interns participated in our annual Intern Impact Day by cleaning classrooms and assembling bikes for young riders in Allentown.
To help charge an exciting future for students, we helped the Steelton-Highspire and Bethlehem Area school districts roll out their first EV buses.
But our favorite event of the year was our Annual Day of Caring in September. More than 460 of our employees assisted 20 nonprofit organizations and sites by cleaning, painting, packing food and planting trees.
We know how important it is to give back. And while we’re happy to have made a positive impact in 2024, we’re looking forward to doing even more in 2025.
For more about our community involvement, see how we’re working behind the scenes to power the moments that matter this holiday season: pplelectric.com/HappyHolidays.
Jun 4, 2024 | Environment
Thanks to our environmentally conscious customers, Pennsylvania is now 5,000 trees richer!
Back in April, we ran a campaign to encourage customers to sign up for paperless billing in celebration of Earth Month. The premise was simple, for every customer that enrolled in paperless billing during the month, we’d commit to plant a tree within one of the many communities we serve thanks to our Community Roots Program. And we’re happy to report that we’ll be planting 5,000 new trees across our service territory.
Mature trees can absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, according to the Arbor Day Foundation. Which means these trees — thanks to our customers — will grow up and absorb more than 240,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of removing approximately 26 gasoline-powered vehicles from roads annually. With just one small change, you’ve helped the environment in a big way. Thank you to everyone who went paperless in April!
Our Community Roots Program, which began in 2017, provides native trees and pollinator-friendly plants and seeds that enhance the environment and help beautify the region. Since the program began, we’ve distributed more than 132,000 trees, shrubs and native pollinator-friendly plants across eastern and central Pennsylvania.
Learn more about our Community Roots Program, and all our environmental efforts, at pplelectric.com/environmental. And, if you haven’t enrolled in paperless billing yet, sign up today at pplelectric.com/paperless.
Feb 21, 2024 | Community Involvement
Being part of the communities we serve goes beyond delivering safe, reliable electricity. Through PPL Foundation Empowering Communities Grants, we support local programs focused on environmental stewardship and education, economic development and/or workforce development.
The Wayne County Community Foundation, located in Honesdale, is a recent PPL Foundation grant recipient. The Community Foundation is allocating these dollars toward supporting its Worker Crisis Relief fund. For 30 years, the organization has used resources from the community to help those in need. The Worker Crisis Relief fund is one of almost 150 different funds established to address areas of need.
“Our goal is to improve the quality of life for everyone here in Wayne County,” said Ryanne Jennings, president and CEO of the Wayne County Community Foundation. “That involves addressing poverty at a systemic level.”
Located in rural northeast Pennsylvania, Wayne County presents challenges for employees with transportation issues. The Worker Crisis Relief fund has mostly helped cover expenses for repairs and down payments on used vehicles. The Community Foundation works with the Wayne Pike Workforce Alliance to find the best solution for funding.
“A car is an essential item in this area,” Jennings said. “It’s not only essential for working, it also keeps families in their homes and provides food security.”
“This fund has been a valuable resource for several community members who have faced a crisis and needed immediate assistance,” said Katheryne Hait, executive director of the Wayne Pike Workforce Alliance. “By partnering with the Community Foundation, we have been able to help these individuals bounce back quickly and regain stability in their lives.”
The fund has helped 10 people address transportation issues since it began over a year ago. Jennings says she hopes the foundation can expand in the coming years to continue to meet the evolving variety of needs of the community.
“The word ‘empowering’ is a strong one; that’s what this Worker Crisis Relief fund does,” Jennings said. “We want to say that, as a community, and PPL is included in that community, we are here to support people when they need it the most. The empowerment is a big reason why we sought this funding.”
Nov 28, 2022 | Community Involvement
At PPL Electric Utilities, we power 29 counties in Pennsylvania. This isn’t just our service territory, it’s our home. It’s where we live and work. It’s where our children go to school. We’re all neighbors.
That’s why we’re proud of the support we’ve provided to our communities this year – and our commitment to continuing these efforts for years to come. Here are just a few examples of the ways we’ve brightened lives in 2022.
Volunteerism
Throughout the year, our employees give their time and talent to support organizations they’re passionate about, including volunteering on 100+ nonprofit boards. Additionally, in 2022, there were several organized efforts during which our employees and their families could support our communities.
In April, more than 150 employees planted trees, created trails and more during Earth Appreciation Month. Organizations and locations we supported included Wayne Grube Memorial Park, Hays Elementary, Lehigh Valley Zoo, Pool Wildlife Sanctuary, Northcentral PA Conservancy, Louise Moore Park and more.
This fall, over 200 employees and their families participated in United Way Day of Caring events serving nonprofit organizations in the Lehigh Valley, Harrisburg, and Benton. Participants helped complete projects at the Sixth Street Shelter, Camel’s Hump Farm, Lehigh County Humane Society, Phoebe Allentown Health Care Center, and other locations.
Supporting STEM education
One initiative about which we are particularly passionate is supporting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. From the Mifflinburg Science Festival in Union County to the Summer Reading Program at the Whitehall Township Public Library in Lehigh County, and communities in between, we’ve helped offer students many new opportunities to flex their brains in 2022. Find out more about our support of STEM education programs.
We know that it’s more important than ever to engage students in STEM disciplines from an early age, and that’s one of the reasons we continue to support efforts like the PPL Foundation’s Cover to Cover program and Empowering Educators grants, which support and encourage teachers to provide hands-on STEM learning experiences. Learn more about the 2022 Empowering Educators grant recipients.
Keeping communities safe
We take our commitment to electrical safety seriously. In 2022 alone, our Live Line Electrical Safety Exhibit, which demonstrates the dangers associated with electrical lines, reached 9,500 first responders and others. The exhibit has reached over 57,000 since its creation in 2016.
This year, more than 10,000 students in 60+ schools learned about electrical safety from “Captain Wattage” during a show we developed in partnership with The National Theatre for Children. That show has reached over 125,000 kids since 2015 via livestream and in-person performances.
We also distributed thousands of free books on electrical safety for students, a program that has impacted more than 43,000 kids since its start in 2018.
Lending a helping hand
With prices rising in industries across the board, some customers are having trouble keeping up with their bills. That’s why we’ve supported customers with payment assistance and other programs, and provided tips and tools to help you use less energy. Check out our new 360 interactive tool to find the savings hiding in your home.
Going green
Protecting the environment is another critical part of our community commitment. We want to keep our winged neighbors safe and thriving, all while protecting the natural beauty of Pennsylvania. We’ve built nesting platforms to protect birds of prey, and we consider the environmental impact of everything we do.
Since our Community Roots program started in 2017, we have given away over 127,000 trees and pollinator plants to help stabilize streambanks, beautify neighborhoods and provide important habitat for birds, bees and butterflies. Over the past year, we’ve connected with thousands of people at dozens of Community Roots events at fairs, concerts, festivals, schools, land conservancies, and conservation organizations in places like Allentown, Bloomsburg, Catawissa, Honesdale, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Williamsport, to name a few.
As we look ahead to 2023, we look forward to continuing to serve and support the communities we all call home. Stay tuned to the community involvement category on this blog and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with our community efforts throughout the year.
Nov 8, 2022 | Community Involvement
What kid wouldn’t want to experiment with static electricity, try their hands at growing vegetables, learn to code, don some electrical lineworker equipment, participate in a program on reptiles, and generally flex their brain in new and exciting ways?
These are just a few examples of the types of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education programs, activities, and events that we’ve supported over the past year.
Check out this video that showcases some of these experiences—from the Mifflinburg Science Festival in Union County to the Summer Reading Program at the Whitehall Township Public Library in Lehigh County, and communities in between.
In our ever-changing, increasingly complex, and technology-driven world, we know that it’s more important than ever to engage students in STEM disciplines from an early age. It helps develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to prepare them for their future lives and careers. That’s one of the reasons we continue to support efforts like the PPL Foundation’s Cover to Cover program and Empowering Educators grants, as well as science festivals, library programs, and other learning opportunities throughout our communities.
After all, today’s student could be tomorrow’s electrical engineer.
More on Empowering Educators grants
The PPL Foundation’s Empowering Educators grants support and encourage teachers to provide hands-on STEM learning experiences. Learn more about the 2022 Empowering Educators grant recipients.
