From Helena to Colstrip, Great Falls to Billings, Butte to Miles City and White Sulfur Springs to Bozeman, PPL Montana Community Fund grants will help 14 organizations reach their goals.

In the company’s second grant cycle in the fund’s inaugural year, PPL Montana has awarded $100,000 to organizations whose programs will improve education, enhance the environment and encourage economic development throughout Montana.

“While our main business is to supply reliable and competitively priced electricity to Montana, we also are deeply involved in supporting the wonderful and inspiring works of organizations that help improve the quality of life in our state,” said Lisa Perry, PPL Montana’s manager of Community Affairs.

PPL Montana received more than 80 applications requesting a total of nearly $650,000 in funding for the fall grant cycle. Combining the spring and fall grant cycles, the Community Fund has awarded $200,000 to 31 Montana organizations in 2005.

An 18-member, statewide advisory board made up of civic and business leaders, as well as PPL Montana employees, helped determine how best to distribute the community grants.

“It’s encouraging to know that there are so many exciting programs that people are working on to make life better in Montana,” Perry said. “While this makes the decision for our board very difficult, it is rewarding to be able to support a number of these worthy programs.”

The PPL Montana Community Fund grant recipients are:

• Great Falls Public Library, Great Falls, $10,000: To help the Bookmobile resume service to part of Cascade County, enabling many rural residents to have access to library materials.
• Billings Depot, Billings, $10,000: To help this renovated building, which is the anchor of the Billings historic district, meet city building and fire codes while protecting its historical style.
• River and Plains Society, Fort Benton, $10,000: To extend the historic River’s Edge Trail to connect the Chouteau County Fairgrounds Canoe Launch and Campgrounds with downtown Fort Benton, which will enable visitors to access businesses, the planned Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument Interpretive Center, museums and other historic sites.
• LVA Butte Literacy, Butte, $10,000: To help provide free and confidential tutoring services for adults in Butte-Silver Bow County who have low literacy skills.
• Miles Community College, Miles City, $10,000: To create and implement an online certification program that would allow experienced nurses to become nurse educators. 
• Children's Museum of Montana, Great Falls, $10,000: To help create a hands-on exhibit exploring the hydroelectric industry in Great Falls by providing information about the Missouri River, how dams work and how each affects the community.
• Youth, Inc./Stevens Center, White Sulphur Springs, $8,000: To enable the center to hire a part-time director for the after-school activities and to continue an arts learning project that brings in visiting artists.
• Montana 4-H, $7,000: To support a three-day, statewide youth program that provides training and skills development for two 4-H leaders aged 14 through 18 from each county.
• Montana Audubon, Great Falls, $5,000: To expand the Audubon's Naturalist Program into the Great Falls schools.
• Got Socks Cooperative Clothing Store, Colstrip, $5,000: To purchase two outside lighted signs for the only clothing store in Colstrip, a cooperative effort by community members, which opened in June 2005 in a renovated school building.
• Colstrip Parent Teacher Organization, $5,000: To help secure a permanent part-time coordinator, as well as cover insurance costs and supplies, for an after-school and summer tutoring program for children aged five to 14.
• Trout Unlimited, Helena, $3,848: To purchase four aquarium systems that will allow the "Trout in the Classroom" program to expand into four additional schools in the Helena area.
• Great Falls Symphony, Great Falls, $3,000: To help pay for two symphonic performances for school children.
• Bozeman Symphony, $3,000: To help pay for expanding the community outreach program to enable another 330 students and their families to participate.

The next grant deadline is Jan. 31, 2006. For more information about the fund or to apply, visit the PPL Montana Web site at www.pplmontana.com.

PPL Montana operates 11 hydroelectric power plants along the Missouri, Madison, Clark Fork and Flathead rivers and Rosebud Creek, as well as two coal-fired plants at Colstrip and Billings, that give it a combined generating capacity of about 1,200 megawatts. The company has 500 employees at facilities throughout the state, with offices in Billings, Butte and Helena.