San Patricio Electric Cooperative, in partnership with CoBank, presented a $10,000 donation to the Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas on November 17.

The Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas will put the $10,000 donation toward its outreach program, which reaches over 9,000 girls from low-income homes in South Texas.  The program teaches girls important skills to help them be successful, such as healthy living, science, technology and money management.

The outreach program is cost-free for low-income girls and their families. Donations to the program subsidize the membership fee, program materials, travel expenses and salary of the person conducting the program.

SPEC’s Board of Directors approved a $5,000 donation to the Girl Scouts earlier this year and, in hopes of doubling that amount, the co-op applied to CoBank’s Sharing Success program. The Sharing Success program matches co-op donations of up to $5,000. CoBank approved the application, and brought the total donation up to $10,000.

CoBank’s Sharing Success program was started in 2012 as a way to give back to co-ops and the non-profits they support. In 2015, CoBank dedicated $3 million to this charitable fund.

SPEC and CoBank have partnered on similar donations in the past through the Sharing Success program. Together, they donated $10,000 to the South Texas Council Boy Scouts in 2014 and the South Texas Children’s Home in 2013.

SPEC has a continued effort to support the communities we serve, particularly the youth in the area. Because of our partnership with CoBank we’re able to exemplify one of the co-op’s seven principles, concern for the community, and do more for our local community and non-profits.

In addition to donations like this, SPEC offers a couple of programs for teens in its service area.

The co-op offers a Youth Tour program, in which it sends two high school juniors or seniors on an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. These students spend a week exploring the nation’s capital with more than 1600 teens from co-ops across the country. SPEC is currently taking applications for its Youth Tour program, which can be found here: www.sanpatricioelectric.org.

In 2015, the SPEC Education Trust awarded $125,000 in scholarships to local high school seniors. Since the scholarship program began in 1999, the co-op has given away more than $575,000 in scholarship funds to deserving high school students.  SPEC will begin accepting scholarship applications on January 1.