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O’Loughlin earns national award Pat O’Loughlin, president and CEO of Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, is the recipient of the 2018 J.C. Brown CEO Communication Leadership Award. The award, presented by National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, recognizes an electric co-op executive who advances communication in the industry. O’Loughlin’s focus on communications promoted the not-for-profit cooperative business model, launched the Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives (OEC) brand, and led to the creation of a three-year strategic plan to elevate the cooperative principles. Under his leadership, OEC conducted internal communications audits and helped craft communications plans for six member co-ops in 2017.
Pat O’Loughlin (left) accepting his award. Photo by Michael W. Kahn.
Donation to fund solar panels, youth programs Consolidated Cooperative donated $5,000 to the nonprofit Stratford Ecological Center, a 236-acre educational organic farm and nature preserve in Delaware, to fund the center’s solar and youth programs. The donation was matched by CoBank of Greenwood Village, Colorado — a cooperative bank and lender of Consolidated — as part of its Sharing Success program, which matches co-op donations. Half of the $10,000 donation will go to the center’s 156-panel solar array project, and the rest will be split among youth programs, including a pen pal program based around reading books.
CFC gives $35,000 to Project Ohio electrification efforts The National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC) recently presented a $35,000 grant to Project Ohio and its efforts to electrify the Guatemalan villages of Las Tortugas and San Jorge. CFC, headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative that provides financial and management services to its electric cooperative distribution and power supply members nationwide. Linemen from Ohio electric cooperatives leave for Guatemala March 5.
Co-ops sponsor human trafficking awareness event Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative and Midwest Electric are sponsoring author and advocate Theresa Flores as she presents her story at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center in Van Vert March 27. Flores travels the U.S. sharing her story of being trafficked at 15 years old and tortured for two years while living in an upper-middle-class suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Flores’s organization, TraffickFree, builds awareness about human trafficking to educate students, professionals, and motel staff on the red flags and how to identify a victim. For tickets, call 419-238-6722 or visit NPACVW.org.
MARCH 2018 • OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING
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