Sixteen Montana organizations will receive a total of $100,000 from PPL Montana’s Community Fund this spring.

The grants will be used to address quality-of-life issues related to education, the environment and economic development.

“These grants continue the company’s support of Montana communities,” said Lisa Perry, manager of community affairs for PPL Montana. “Since the Community Fund began in 2005, we’ve awarded a total of $500,000 to 80 organizations throughout the state.

“We are proud to help these groups whose programs touch the lives of thousands of Montanans.”

The Community Fund received nearly 200 applications for this spring’s grants.

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

“It’s always difficult to select the grant recipients because there are so many worthwhile projects,” Perry said. “I can’t thank our board members enough for the many hours they spend evaluating the projects and carefully considering each decision.”

PPL Montana will donate another $100,000 through its Community Fund in fall 2007. The deadline for applications will be July 31. Only online applications are accepted. The application will be available beginning May 15 at www.pplmontana.com.

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

• Children’s Museum of Bozeman, Bozeman, $5,000 — To create a new exhibit called MEL: Mobile Experiment Labs. These portable, self-contained science carts are designed for small, highly engaging experiments using household materials.
• Community Works, Helena, $10,000 — To provide solar-thermal panels and related equipment to preheat water used in the in-floor radiant heating for this interactive science museum that will open at the Great Northern Town Center in fall 2007. The “green” building will demonstrate renewable energy technologies and energy-efficient practices.
• Great Falls Public Library, Great Falls, $10,000 — To enable the Bookmobile to continue to provide service to rural residents of Cascade County.
• Hillcrest School Association, Butte, $9,888 — To help Hillcrest Elementary School meet the growing demand for technological integration in curriculum by purchasing three Smart Boards. These interactive boards allow teachers to project a computer image to energize presentations and motivate learners.
• Missoula Children’s Theatre, Missoula, $6,000 — To enable seven additional schools to participate in the theater’s traveling performances that help students learn life skills and gain confidence by taking part in the productions.
• Montana Committee for the Humanities, Missoula, $2,000 — To help support the organization’s Speakers Bureau, which provides 150 to 200 programs per year statewide on topics including history, literature, philosophy, religion, ethics and law.
• Montana Council, Boy Scouts, Billings, $5,000 — To support a four-day statewide “Camporee” near Helena this summer for 2,500 Scouts and their leaders. The Scouts will participate in outdoor education and skill-building activities and each evening will have an opportunity to attend presentations by local government officials, motivational speakers and entertainers.
• Montana History Foundation, Helena, $10,000 — To enable the Montana History Foundation to print a Montana history textbook and make it available for seventh-grade students across the state. Currently there is no textbook focusing specifically on Montana history.
• Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, Great Falls, $5,000 — To assist the school in purchasing new gymnasium bleachers safely accessible for people with disabilities.
• Montana Watershed Coordination Council, Bozeman, $7,985 — To support a two-day training event for more than 30 watershed coordinators from across the state who implement and support community-based water resource protection.
• Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Great Falls, $5,000 — To assist in expanding the museum’s After School Art Education program, which serves children in Grades K-12, including those with developmental and physical disabilities.
• Rails to Trails, Kalispell, $3,000 — To help complete a 1.3-mile trail along Kila Road, enabling Kila School students to safely walk to school.
• Richey High School, Richey, $1,150 — To be used toward an automated watering system for the Richey High School greenhouse. Students learn about agriculture and business through working in the greenhouse, the only one serving the community.
• Rimrock Opera Company, Billings, $3,000 — To support performances of an anti-tobacco program, “The Night Harry Stopped Smoking,” at area schools.
• Treasure County 89’ers Museum, Hysham, $9,477 — To purchase a heating and cooling unit for the Yucca Theatre in Hysham, enabling it to be used year-round. Built in 1931, the Southwestern Mission architectural style theater in downtown Hysham was once abandoned but now is restored and hosts a variety of events, drawing visitors to Treasure County, which, with its 700 residents, is one of the smallest counties in Montana.
• Western Heritage Center, Billings, $7,500 — To support the Echoes Oral History Initiative, a two-year program to collect oral history interviews from some of the people who shaped the Yellowstone River Valley between 1940-1990, a period of significant change in the Valley.

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 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 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).