Thirteen area teachers were recently surprised when Santee Electric Cooperative employees showed up at their schools with up to $1,000 each in grant money. The money came from a cooperative grant program called 'Bright Ideas,' which allows teachers to compete for funding outside of often limited school district resources.

Santee Electric Cooperative employees, armed with balloons, flowers, goody bags and 'big checks,' arrived at Anderson High School, East Clarendon Middle and High Schools, Georgetown High School, Kingstree Middle School, Manning Early Childhood Center, Walker Gamble Elementary School and Williamsburg Academy in the 'Prize Patrol' van to surprise the 2011 Bright Ideas winners. Many surprised teachers and students were thrilled when the doors of their classroom opened and a co-op representative announced they were winners!

Bright, excited educators have come up with numerous ways to utilize these funds to teach their students. Isabelle McKnight at Andrews High School will use her grant for chemistry kits and field trips. Tiffany Mathews, Laura Flemming and Sheri Sims at East Clarendon Middle and High schools will use their grants for camera learning, environmental issues and other valuable lessons.

Urica Brown at Georgetown High School's grant was named Chemistry of our World while Cynthia McClorin at Kingstree Middle School titled her grant Digital Story tellers. Book It to the Best Place to Read was the name of Manning Early Childhood Center teacher Carla Laney's grant. Three teachers from Walker Gamble Elementary School, Lynette Barrineau, LeSandra Grimsley and Beth Yarborough, received grants. Lyn Martin, Elissa Swicord and Missie McCutcheon, all from Williamsburg Academy also excelled in their grant writing skills and their students will benefit from the grants they received.

'The idea behind Bright Ideas,' according to SEC's President and CEO Floyd Keels, 'is to empower good teachers and to provide support outside of normal school funding for deserving classroom projects that need extra assistance.'

In all, $12,886.66 was awarded to schools in Williamsburg, Georgetown, Clarendon and Florence counties. All classroom educators were eligible to apply if they taught in grades kindergarten through twelve in the co-op's 4-county service area. Teachers were awarded grant money if they could prove in an application that they had an innovative idea for a classroom project. Each school was eligible to submit more than one application, but individual teachers were limited to one application per school year.

Santee Electric Cooperative adopted this grant project from the North Carolina Electric Cooperatives and Palmetto Electric Cooperative, which have awarded more than $2 million since their program's inception in 1994.