Palmetto, GA—July 2, 2015—To help local children with disabilities and their caregivers, the Coweta-Fayette EMC Trust, Inc. Board of Directors/Operation Round Up recently donated funds to Families of Children Under Stress (FOCUS) for their “Extra Special Saturday” program in Fayette County.
The non-profit organization—which serves just under 3,000 families in the Atlanta metro area, including more than 700 in the eight-county Coweta-Fayette EMC service territory—was founded in 1983 by parents to offer comfort, hope and information to families with children who are medically fragile or have significant developmental or physical disabilities. FOCUS provides accessible recreational and social programs for children and teens and fun, inclusive activities for the entire family.
Coweta-Fayette EMC CEO Chris Stephens said Operation Round Up’s donation to FOCUS lines up with the cooperatives core principle of concern for community. “We believe in strengthening families and helping members,” he said. “And this organization does an awful lot of good in those areas.”
Extra Special Saturday is a childcare program through FOCUS for participants with diverse disabilities designed to provide organized, safe and interesting activities to special children and their typical siblings. Most children in this program range from six months to 13 years of age. Some activities include music therapy, physical therapy, canine therapy, playing games, reading stories and having fun outdoors. At the same time the kids are having fun, parents are able to take a small break from the ongoing and challenging responsibility of caring for their children.
Operation Round Up is a Coweta-Fayette EMC program that contributes more than $250,000 each year to worthy groups in the cooperative service area. These awards are made possible by voluntary contributions from EMC members whose monthly electric bills are “rounded up” to the nearest dollar. The difference between what is actually owed and the next highest dollar is placed in an interest-bearing account, and this money is managed through a separate board of directors, the Coweta-Fayette Trust.
Coweta-Fayette EMC is a consumer-owned cooperative providing electricity and related services to more than 76,000 member accounts in Coweta, Fayette, Heard, South Fulton, Clayton, Spalding, Troup and Meriwether Counties.