Kankakee Valley REMC, a nonprofit electric membership cooperative in Northwest Indiana, is excited to announce it is accepting applications for the annual Operation Round Up Scholarship. The scholarship is available to graduating high school seniors who plan to continue their education at a college, university, or trade school. In addition, applicants, parents, or guardians must also be member-consumers of Kankakee Valley REMC. The scholarship is part of the Operation Round Up Trust program that is fully funded by the member-consumers of Kankakee Valley REMC who participate by rounding up their electric bill each month.
“About 70% of the Kankakee Valley REMC membership contribute to Operation Round Up Trust. We are pleased that our membership shares in our mission of giving back to the community. Operation Round Up is just one way we can give back together,” said Amanda Steeb, Communications and Marketing Director at Kankakee Valley REMC.
Kankakee Valley REMC member-consumers can voluntarily elect to be part of the Operation Round Up Trust program. When they round up their bill, the money goes to not only support non-profits who apply for grants but also to the scholarship program. Each member-consumers annual contribution to Operation Round Up Trust is between $6 and $12, and with the thousands of contributors, the impact for community non-profits continues to grow.
“When you take the small change from each monthly electric bill and divide that by the member-consumers who participate, it really adds up. With support from the member-consumers of Kankakee Valley REMC, we are able to impact many non-profit organizations and support our youth through scholarships. There aren’t too many ways you can give $6 a year and have it help so many people and places in our local community,” Steeb said.
“Not only are we strong supporters of our community, but we are also strong supporters of our youth,” Steeb emphasized. “That’s where the Operation Round Up Scholarship comes from. It really met the mission of the cooperative.”
The Operation Round Up Scholarship is available once a year and is only open to students currently in their senior year of high school and who will be continuing their education at a university or trade school. The scholarship gives out a total of six scholarships every year: two $2,000 scholarships and four $1,000 scholarships. The scholarship is only available to students whose parents or guardians are Kankakee Valley REMC member-consumers and they have to participate in Operation Round Up Scholarship in order to apply.
Along with filling out the application, which must be either mailed or put in the Kankakee Valley REMC’s dropbox, students must write an essay between 50 and 500 words. In the essay, students must imagine that they are the recipient of a $2,000 grant that will go toward a community or neighborhood improvement project. They are required to go into detail on what the project would be and how they would complete it.
Continuing the theme of community involvement, Kankakee Valley REMC recently introduced a new requirement for scholarship winners that puts them right in the community working with Kankakee Valley REMC.
“When winners are announced, each recipient receives half of the scholarship money upfront and they get the rest once they complete a few community activities,” Steeb said. “They must attend the Kankakee Valley REMC Annual Meeting and a board meeting, work side by side with an employee at a community event, or do a job shadow for a day at Kankakee Valley REMC.”
“We want to engage with our youth,” Steeb said. “We don’t want to just award them this money and then never hear from them again. The students applying for and receiving this scholarship are really our future leaders in the community, and we want to stay connected with them long after the scholarship is awarded. It is our hope that maybe this type of interaction might someday result in them wanting to pursue a future career with a cooperative like Kankakee Valley REMC.”
Applications for the 2021 Operation Round Up Scholarship are due March 3, 2021, at 3:30 p.m. CST. The scholarship application and guidelines for applying can be found on Kankakee Valley REMC’s website at https://www.kvremc.com/community-programs/operation-round-up-trust.
For more information about Kankakee Valley REMC, please visit https://www.kvremc.com/.
