By Rick Lemonds, president & CEO
Since the beginning, South Central Power Company has been about members coming together and doing what is best for the community. In 2014, South Central Power’s trustees saw an opportunity to invest in the community in a way that would go far beyond our power lines. By selling the oil and gas rights of land owned by the cooperative in the eastern portion of the state, hey secured seed capital for a new South Central Power Company Foundation. To make the foundation sustainable, the cooperative implemented Operation Round Up, a way for any member to contribute to the foundation each month by voluntarily rounding up their electric bill to the nearest dollar.
As of April of this year, roughly 87% of members participate in this program, resulting in around $650,000 each year. For the average member who contributes, it’s about $6 per year. A small sum perhaps, but together, the impact is significant.
Combined, members participating in Operation Round Up have raised more than $6 million for the foundation and funded more than 1,000 individual scholarships. Grant recipients have been awarded funding for a variety of applications, from life-saving equipment for first responders, to restoring historic properties in our communities and providing critical funding for community organizations like food banks that serve those who need it the most.
The South Central Power Company Foundation is governed by an 11-member volunteer board composed of members just like you. They are appointed by your elected South Central Power trustees and take their jobs of making the most of your contributions seriously. As I review the quarterly report on grant awards made by the foundation, I am always impressed by the selection of worthy causes and the strategic investments that the foundation has chosen to make in the communities we serve.
That said, one of the most impressive things the foundation does each year is in awarding its scholarships. Most years, the foundation has awarded 100 scholarships in a handful of categories. In recent years, the board added a scholarship category to help students attend trade and technical schools, and in 2025, for the first time the board introduced an “opportunity scholarship” aimed at helping students from our communities who demonstrate potential differently than the typical academic measures of SATs and GPAs.
We take pride each year in using these pages to spotlight every single scholarship recipient we are able to assist with their post-high school education. Whether it’s the young woman who plans to study welding, or one of our many students from small towns making their dreams come true by attending The Ohio State University, each student has a story. And those stories are just beginning. It’s our hope that by facilitating these scholarship awards, we might play some small role in helping students get a great education and the opportunity to return to their hometowns and give something back to the places that helped raise them.
Thank you to those who support the foundation through Operation Round Up.
From the June 2025 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.