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FEBRUARY 2022

Suwannee Valley

CURRENTS

INSIDE:

TOP OF THE CLASS Operation Round Up and scholarships give local students a leg up TAKE A HIKE Enjoy these six great beach hikes without leaving the state AROUND THE COMMUNITY SVEC takes part in local MLK Day and Arbor Day celebrations

CEO’S MESSAGE

Suwannee Valley

CURRENTS February 2022

Michael S. McWaters Executive V.P./CEO

The power of community Being part of a cooperative comes with its fair share of perks. Not only do our consumer-members enjoy the safe, reliable and affordable power that we work hard to provide every day, but you also get to share in the ownership of the co-op itself. When we bring in more money than we need to keep the electric system strong, money is returned to you in the form of retired capital credits. You even have a voice in how our cooperative is run by electing the trustees who represent you each year at the annual meeting. As great as these benefits are, they wouldn’t mean much if our consumermembers didn’t see us as active and invested members of this community. We’re not here just to do our job and go home. We are also committed to making our local community a better place to live, both on and off the electric grid. That’s why we launched Operation Round Up® in 2019. For the last three years, participating members have rounded their bills up to the next dollar and SVEC has set that money aside for local schools. Each account only donates an average of 49 cents a month. But taken together, those contributions have made it possible to award more than $300,000 in grants to improve the education of our students. Since the program’s inception, those grants have gone toward classroom essentials like books, lab equipment and online learning resources for public and accredited private and independent schools in our area. These grants have helped open new doors for our students, and it’s all thanks to the generosity of SVEC’s consumer-members. This month you can learn more about the ways Operation Round Up benefits students. From exposing them to new forms of art to facilitating new ways of teaching old standards, you can see just how quickly the funded classroom improvements have impacted local students. You can also see photos from some of our favorite annual activities, like taking part in Live Oak’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade and joining the state’s Arbor Day efforts. And you can also learn how to get a heads up on future LifeSouth blood drives at our office. These are just a few of the ways we give back to the community that created this cooperative. The Suwannee Valley is our home. We were built by the people of this region, and we work hard daily to provide you with the best service possible. That is a privilege we will never take for granted. 

WE BELONG TO THOSE WE SERVE Business Office: 800-447-4509 11340 100th St. Live Oak, FL 32060 Lobby Hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday Drive-thru Kiosk Open 24 Hours 24/7 Power Outage Reporting 800-752-0025 svec-coop.com facebook.com/sveccoop @SVEC_COOP_FL Instagram.com/sveccoop SVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer. On the cover: Students at the Boys Ranch Donald Ralph Cooke School are benefiting from a new curriculum thanks to an Operation Round Up® grant. See story, Page 4.

2 | February 2022

Suwannee Valley Currents

Make your voice heard in

Districts 7, 8 & 9

It’s time for SVEC members living in Districts 7, 8 and 9 to meet and nominate a candidate to serve on the board of trustees. Each nominee will be voted on at the Annual Member Meeting, scheduled for April 23. In addition to a nomination, each district meeting will include an open discussion about other cooperative matters. Please plan to attend if you live in one of these districts: District 7 - 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24, at the Prospect Primitive Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, Jasper. Located 12.5 miles north of White Springs off County Road 135 — turn right on SE 54th Drive. District 8 - 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1, at the Wellborn Association Building, located at 1340 8th Ave., Wellborn. District 9 - 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 3, at the Mayo Community Center, located at 150 NW Community Circle, Mayo.

Need money for college? SVEC can help! SVEC is awarding up to 11 scholarships of $1,500 each to deserving high school seniors in our community. Eligible students must graduate in the spring of 2022 from a public high school, home school, private school or charter school in SVEC’s service territory. They must have a cumulative unweighted high school GPA of at least 3.50 and they must plan to attend an accredited postsecondary or vocational education institution this fall.

Save when you buy a new standby generator SVEC is a Generac® Energy Alliance Partner. That means SVEC consumer-members can purchase Generic whole-house automatic standby generators at special discounted prices. Extended warranties are also available for 22 kW units — the most commonly purchased size — at discounted prices. Financing is available through First Federal Bank. Contact the following SVEC members, who are Generaccertified sales and service partners, for more information: Felknor Electric Inc. Phone: 386-362-1441 Email: felknorelectric@gmail.com Holly Electric Inc. Phone: 386-755-5944 Email: hollyelectricinc@gmail.com

The student must also be a dependent of an SVEC member, but they cannot be a child or grandchild of a current SVEC employee or trustee. For more details or to apply, visit https://svec-coop.com/ community/scholarships/. Suwannee Valley Currents

February 2022 | 3

Show &

Local teachers share how Operation Round Up® helps their students When Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative launched Operation Round Up in 2019, our goal was to give back to the community that has always supported us. In the three years since, we have been able to award more than $300,000 to local schools, giving our students the resources they need to be successful. This month, we’re taking a look at a few of the ways those grants have been put to good use.

SUWANNEE HIGH SCHOOL

Traci Green has been a teacher at Suwannee High School for 22 years. But when she joined the art department several years ago as a 3D art instructor, she knew materials would be a challenge. “For projects that align with the standards I needed to cover, there were a lot of supplies that we honestly just didn’t have the money for,” she says. While there were other grants available, most of them excluded items, such as clay, paint and glue, her classroom needed. Only Operation Round Up allowed her to obtain these essentials. “It’s really hard to do some art projects without something as simple as paint and glue,” she says. “So we would have been working with very limited supplies without this grant.” Green has been able to see the results on the faces of her students, many of whom had never before had the chance to work with clay. “It can be intimidating at first because some kids haven’t even experienced something like Play-Doh,” she says. “But as they start working with clay you see the metaphorical light bulb, and their faces light up. If nothing else, it builds character and confidence to know they can create something with their own hands.”

4 | February 2022

DONALD RALPH COOKE SCHOOL

When the Donald Ralph Cooke School at the Boys Ranch made the decision to transition from a public school to a private one in the 2021-22 school year, an updated curriculum was one of the first priorities for Director of Education Dana Drawdy. “We don’t have teachers who teach just algebra or just biology like other high schools do. We have one teacher who teaches science, one who teaches math, and so on,” she says. “Having a curriculum where everything is written out — tests are prepared and ready — really helps teachers manage their workload.” The new curriculum is built with ACT and SAT prep in mind for 6th-12th grade. Drawdy’s goal is for students to be better prepared if they choose to pursue further education. “If we can start at the middle school level, hopefully, by the time they graduate, they’re ready for college, technical school or the workforce. Whichever is best for them,” she says. While the Operation Round Up grant the school received didn’t cover the entire curriculum, Drawdy estimates that it paid for one grade level. Even in the first semester, the results have already been noticeable for students. "Our students who have come in behind have improved their GPAs,” she says. “Even students who came in almost a whole semester behind have been able to make up some of the work they’ve been missing. So it’s made a big difference."

HAMILTON COUNTY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Joanie Howell’s fifth-grade classroom is built to engage her students. Their desks have dry-erase surfaces for working out problems, color-coded folders and baskets for assignments. Task cards hang around the room with different problems to solve. "No child likes to sit there and just listen to the teacher talk for an hour and a half,” she says. “Even we adults can’t sit there and listen to someone talk and not get distracted.”

Suwannee Valley Currents

tell When Howell heard about Operation Round Up, she naturally thought of ways to further improve the classroom experience for her students. One purchase she made was a deck of jumbo playing cards, which she uses to help students visualize problems with fractions and mixed numbers. “I tell them to take the face cards out and they create their mixed numbers or fractions based on the cards they flip over,” Howell says. “Every group is working different problems, and I can walk around facilitating if they get stuck.” Activities like these don’t just help her students engage with math in new ways. They also provide variable levels of difficulty, keeping students who might be struggling with a subject involved while maintaining a level of rigor for higher-achieving students. So far, the results have been undeniable. “Looking at last year, my students attained over 90% growth on the Florida Standards Assessments tests,” Howell says. “I attribute that to being able to effectively use small group instruction thanks to the materials I could purchase with this grant. If used effectively, it can do wonders for any classroom.” 

Suwannee Valley Currents

February 2022 | 5

Sausage balls 1 16 8 1/2 1

pound sausage ounces baking mix, such as Bisquick ounces shredded cheese jar Cheez Whiz tablespoon paprika

Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Form into balls and place on cookie sheets. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve plain or with honey and/or spicy mustard.

bright ideas

When you save energy, you save money. Check back here each month for new ways to make your home or business more energy-efficient.

Sausage-cream cheese crescent rolls 1 1 1-2

pound mild sausage with extra sage (8-ounce) package cream cheese (8-ounce) cans refrigerated crescent dough

Heat oven to 375 F. In skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes or until no longer pink, stirring frequently. Drain well. Put sausage back in skillet and add cream cheese, stirring until cream cheese is melted. Set aside. Separate crescent rolls and arrange into two rectangles. Form log of sausage mixture lengthwise down center of each rectangle. Fold over the long sides of pastry to cover sausage log. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, seam-side down. Bake 20 minutes until crust is golden. Let cool slightly, then slice into 1 1/2-inch slices and serve warm.

Do you have a great recipe? Email a copy of a recipe you’d like to share to communications@svec-coop.com.

Watch the thermostat Lowering the temperature in your home during cold months and keeping it a little higher during warm months can save up to 30% on your energy bill. Stay comfortable in the wintertime by wearing warm clothes and keeping blankets handy. If you don’t feel like monitoring your home’s temperature, consider investing in a programmable thermostat. It can automatically reduce energy usage from your heating and cooling system when you’re out of the house while adjusting it to be comfortable when you return home.  For more energy saving tips, the latest cooperative news and more, follow SVEC at: facebook.com/sveccoop instagram.com/sveccoop twitter.com/SVEC_COOP

6 | February 2022

Suwannee Valley Currents

great beach hikes in Florida

These beach hikes offer an up-close look at natural Florida, with some prime places where you can enjoy a sunrise or sunset before the full heat of summer arrives. ©designer_an/Adobe Stock

By Sandra Friend, Visit Florida

1. HIKING TRAIL, LITTLE TALBOT ISLAND

Check in at the ranger station of Little Talbot Island State Park for this 3.8-mile loop, which starts in a shady maritime forest of windswept red bay trees and gnarled oaks. As the roar of the waves draws closer, the trail skirts spectacular dunes that shimmer in the sun and emerges at a bench overlooking the sea. For the next hour, it’s just you and the beach, starfish-studded and remote. 12157 Heckscher Drive

5. BLOWING ROCKS PRESERVE, JUPITER ISLAND

3. UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA DUNES PRESERVE, PENSACOLA BEACH For 3.7 miles, the Florida Trail — the only National Scenic Trail to reach a beach — winds through mounds of sand, sparkling white as sugar, in this unique 150-acre preserve. Enjoy quiet contemplation amid dune grasses, coastal marshes and wind-sculpted pines that meet between the calm waters of Santa Rosa Sound and the emerald hues of the Gulf of Mexico. CR 399 (3000 block of Via De Luna Drive)

Hike 1/3-mile through a shady tunnel of sea grapes to discover Anastasia Limestone rock formations along a slice of beachfront preserved by The Nature Conservancy. When the surf pulls back across soft, cinder-like sand to reveal the well-worn rock formations, explore the wave-sculpted benches and tidal pools — an ever-changing landscape carved by waves and wind. 574 South Beach Road.

4. ANASTASIA ISLAND, 6. CASPERSEN BEACH PARK, VENICE ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH At the southern tip of Venice, 2. SILVER PALM TRAIL, BAHIA Leave the crowd at Anastasia State Caspersen Beach Park beckons HONDA KEY Park and walk to the north end of with more than a mile of wild shoreWell-known for its botanical bounty the island. At low tide, the hardline featuring views of mangrove and stunning beaches, Bahia packed sands offer an easy strollislands and the gulf. Walk up to Honda State Park is also home to ing surface where flocks of pelicans 3.8 miles round-trip along the hardone of the largest native stands of and seagulls gather. As the shorepacked tidal line as pelicans play silver palms in the United States. line curves to meet Matanzas Inlet, in the surf. Or join the stoop-andLearn a little botany on this interprestones and a well-worn track guide scoop crowd in search of megative .6-mile loop past the diminutive you to the end of the road for your sized sharks’ teeth from the prepalms, the tallest of which is 29 feet. reward: a panorama of downtown historic megalodon. 4100 Harbor US 1 MM 37 Oceanside St. Augustine. 1340-A A1A South Drive South 

Suwannee Valley Currents

February 2022 | 7

Planting something NEW SVEC was happy to once again participate in Florida’s Arbor Day by giving out 150 tree saplings to the cooperative’s consumer-members. This year, the cooperative gave out native green ash trees like the one Kenneth Burke picked out for his home in Jasper.

The gift of life Last month, the LifeSouth bloodmobile came by SVEC. The bloodmobile stops at the cooperative’s office four times a year. Since March 2004, SVEC employees have donated 736 units of blood out of compassion for their fellow community members. LifeSouth estimates that’s enough blood to save up to 2,208 lives. If you would like to participate in the next blood drive, keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages for announcements of upcoming visits.

SVEC on parade SVEC honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the parade held in his memory in Live Oak. Right-of-way Crewman Kevin Hines drove a bucket truck in the parade. His daughter, Kevionna, also joined him on the parade route.

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Suwannee Valley Currents