BRAHAM, Minn. - This summer East Central Energy's (ECE) Trust Board for Operation Round Up®, awarded $21,439 to 11 community service organizations in its service area. These funds originate as voluntary donations from ECE members. For members who join the program, ECE rounds up their monthly electric bill to the next whole dollar and the difference goes to the fund. Then, each quarter, an independent trust board of ECE members reviews donation requests and distributes the funds.

Recipient organizations and their use for the funds include:

• Onanegozie Resource Conservation & Development, Mora, Minn. -- $2,500 in support of the "A Guide for Rural Living Project."
• Pine County Sheriff's Patrol, Pine City, Minn. -- $1,500 for purchase of equipment for its new command/equipment trailer.
• Tiger Town Playgrounds, Princeton, Minn. -- $1,000 for new playground equipment.
• Foley Public Schools-ECFE, Foley, Minn. -- $1,029 for the food cart on wheels and "Love and Logic" early childhood curriculum.
• Friendship Ventures, Annandale, Minn. -- $2,000 for camp scholarships for disabled individuals.
• Industries, Inc., Mora, Minn. -- $2,690 in support of the organization's communications efforts to help advance opportunities for mentally disabled clients.
• New Pathways, Inc., Cambridge, Minn. -- $2,220 for two electric water heaters, two carbon monoxide detectors and two ground fault circuit interrupters for installation in its transitional housing facility.
• Mille Lacs Hospice, Onamia, Minn. -- $1,000 for supplies and printing and distribution of brochures to assist terminally ill individuals and their families or caregivers.
• Friends of the North Branch Library, North Branch, Minn. -- $2,500 for new window coverage for the reading room.
• Milaca Area Pantry, Milaca, Minn. -- $2,500 toward the costs for materials to assist in a building maintenance project to allow continued food distribution from this site.
• Mille Lacs Public Transit, Milaca, Minn. -- $2,500 in support of the public transit project.

"While ECE concentrates on member needs, we also remain committed to our communities," says Gwen Thomas, senior vice president of East Central Energy. "Operation Round Up provides another way to follow this principle of cooperation and we are grateful to ECE members who continue to support Operation Round Up. With their help, nearly $750,000 has been collected since the program began more than eight years ago to support continued quality of life in our communities."

East Central Energy www.eastcentralenergy.com is a member-owned electric cooperative serving nearly 56,000 homes, farms and businesses in east central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. ECE also provides Internet and long distance services.