Program has awarded 160 grants over five years

PPL Montana’s Community Fund is awarding grants to 15 nonprofit community organizations across the state this fall, bringing the total amount of company support to more than $1 million in the past five years.

“As a major company that employs more than 500 Montanans, we know that our Community Fund grants make our state a better place to live and work,” said Pete Simonich, vice president and chief operating officer of PPL Montana. “When we give money to community groups, we know we’re touching people — people we know — in towns across Montana.”

Through the grant program, PPL Montana has awarded 160 grants to support organizations that are addressing issues related to education, the environment and economic development.

“Since 2005, PPL Montana’s Community Fund has strengthened the company’s partnerships with communities from Colstrip to Kalispell,” Simonich said. “It’s our way of saying thanks and to make a difference in our home state.”

Twice a year, the PPL Montana Community Fund Advisory Board awards $100,000 in grants to schools and nonprofit organizations that address quality-of-life issues. The grants range from $1,000 to $10,000 each.

Through the grant program, “PPL Montana is showing its respect for the important role of nonprofits in our communities,” said advisory board member Julia Murphy, a financial consultant with RBC Wealth Management in Billings. “This program is saying, ‘It’s important to go to the ballet, the art museum or learn about energy conservation.’ It’s creating a better place to live through a very holistic approach.”

The advisory board is made up of 18 people from the company and from the community who review grant applications from across the state. Individuals serve two years on the board.

“Over the past five years, more than 50 different people from across the state have had input on the distribution of Community Fund grants, and I want to extend our thanks for their service and commitment to Montana,” Simonich said. 

The Montana Conservation Corps was among the first organizations to receive a PPL Montana Community Fund grant. With programs modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, the organization teaches civic responsibility to teens and helps build an appreciation for the outdoors.

Jono McKinney, president and chief executive officer of the Montana Conservation Corps, said PPL Montana’s support helped expand the MontanaYES youth program, a summer volunteer service experience for teens that was piloted in 2002.

“Grants from the PPL Community Fund helped us build and sustain the program such that this last summer, nearly 100 youth committed 18,000 hours in service to improve community trails, restore wildlife and stream habitat, and help local nonprofit groups,” McKinney said. “And with over 100,000 hours of service and learning completed since 2005, these teens have left a legacy of healthier public lands and rivers, and stronger communities for all of us to enjoy.

“PPL’s grants have been investments in a generation of leaders and engaged citizens who are making a positive difference in our communities,” he said.

Because of the impact the program has made, Simonich said, PPL Montana is looking forward to continuing to serve the communities in Big Sky Country.

“The Community Fund program is a reflection of the spirit of PPL Montana, whose employees are involved in their towns — as Scout leaders, sports coaches and volunteers,” he said. “Every dollar, from the first to the millionth, has helped to strengthen our state.”

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

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butte-Silver Bow, Butte, $10,000 — to help expand its school-based mentoring program, which matches high school juniors and seniors with elementary school children.
• Big Sky Senior Services, Billings, $6,500 — to help fund its Gatekeeper training program, which teaches community volunteers to spot and report possible elder abuse.
• Billings Village Golden K Kiwanis, Billings, $2,000 — to support reading sessions, organized by a group of retired Kiwanians, for Head Start students ages 3-5.
• Boys & Girls Club of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, Lame Deer, $7,000 — to repair and improve the club’s aging heating system, which was inoperable for almost two months last winter. The club serves more than 600 children ages 5 through 18 with after-school programs, tutoring and meals, among other services.
• Boys & Girls Club of Yellowstone County, Billings, $5,000 — to replace the existing lighting system in its Bair Family Clubhouse with a more economical and energy-efficient system and to help teach children how changing a light fixture can help conserve energy.
• H. Earl Clack Museum, Havre, $2,550 — to help build dioramas that will allow the museum to display its world-class collection, including displays of 75-million-year-old dinosaur eggs, skeletons and castings.
• Habitat for Humanity Mid-Yellowstone Valley, Billings, $5,019 — to purchase equipment, including a hydraulic van lift to help volunteers load supplies, for the operation of ReStore, a Habitat-run business that generates income to build houses for low-income families.
• LINKS for Learning, Livingston, $8,662 — to provide a tool shed and wash station for the organization’s Learning Garden Classroom project at the Washington School.
• Montana Natural History Center, Missoula, $3,269 — to purchase educational equipment, including a powerful microscope and a wireless sound system, and classroom furniture to help children learn about the wonders of science in nature.
• Montana School for the Deaf & Blind Foundation, Great Falls, $10,000 — to help support two-week summer programs in communication, social interaction, independent living, technology and recreation. Families learn about tools and technology that can help their children learn, communicate and get around independently.
• Rialto Community Theatre, Deer Lodge, $10,000 — to help purchase a handicap- accessible elevator to reach the balcony in the historic theater, which was damaged by fire in 2006. The elevator is one of the last pieces of equipment needed before the theater can reopen.
• Special K Ranch, Columbus, $10,000 — to help replace the covering and fasteners on 14 greenhouses with a more energy-efficient system. The greenhouses provide vocational training for developmental disabled adults in a rural, agricultural setting.
• The Watershed Education Network, Missoula, $10,000 — to expand its river education curriculum to six new rural classes and four tribal classes and to help students learn about rivers and the culture and science that surround them. The curriculum is in high demand because it contains a Native American component that helps the schools adhere to Montana’s unique Indian Education for All Act.
• Townsend K-12 School District, Townsend, $5,000 — to help install a 25-kilowatt solar panel system at the school to help teach students and the community about sources of alternative energy.
• Young Families Early Head Start, Billings, $5,000 — to help expand three classrooms to support programs, now with a waiting list, for 32 infants and toddlers while their teen parents complete their high school education. Young parents also receive child development information and parenting skills.

PPL has 500 employees in Montana who generate and sell electricity. PPL Montana operates coal-fired power plants at Colstrip and Billings, as well as 11 hydroelectric power plants along Rosebud Creek and the Missouri, Madison, Clark Fork and Flathead rivers. It has a combined generating capacity of about 1,200 megawatts and has offices in Billings, Butte and Helena. PPL EnergyPlus operates a trading floor in Butte that markets and sells power in the wholesale and retail energy market. PPL Montana and PPL EnergyPlus are subsidiaries of PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL).