Planters Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) is accepting applications for the Planters EMC Scholarship. All high school seniors who are the son or daughter of a Planters EMC member are eligible to apply. Applications must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday, April 8, 2016, to be eligible for the randomly drawn scholarship.
According to Planters spokesman Randy Hill, forty-eight scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each will be awarded. Students may download an application from the Planters EMC website at www.plantersemc.com under Forms. The application should be completed and mailed or dropped off at any Planters EMC office location in Millen, Sylvania or Waynesboro on or before the deadline.
The scholarships are made possible through Planters EMC’s unclaimed capital credits. Hill explained, “a 2005 Georgia law allows electric membership cooperatives to use capital credits unclaimed after five years for funding education, economic development or charitable organizations within the EMC’s service area. Capital credits, or patronage dividends, are margins that exceed the cost of providing service for member-owners of an EMC for a given year. According to cooperative guidelines, capital credits may be returned to EMC members on a schedule determined by their co-op’s management and Board of Directors.”
He added that, “until 2006, unclaimed capital credits were paid to the Georgia Department of Revenue, under Georgia’s Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act. Since 2006, Planters EMC has awarded $400,000 in scholarships to local students.”
Planters EMC is a member-owned electric cooperative providing electricity and related services to 12,500 members in Bulloch, Burke, Effingham, Emanuel, Jenkins, Richmond and Screven counties.
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