The Jackson EMC Foundation Board of Directors awarded a total of $62,610 in grants during their October meeting, including $57,343 to organizations and $5,267 to individuals.

Organizational Grant Recipients:

$15,000 to Hope Haven, an Athens agency providing a variety of programs to support developmentally disabled individuals, to help purchase a smaller lift-equipped van that will eliminate the transportation barrier that keeps clients from small group learning experiences.

$6,343 to the Lumpkin County Literacy Coalition to provide computer upgrades and support that will enable the Family Literacy Project to offer a computerized reading curriculum called "Reading Horizons" for adults.

$6,000 to the Music Time Learning Center to help provide "Raising Musical Children" music education classes to underprivileged or special needs children at Gwinnett County schools and daycare centers.

$15,000 to the Pregnancy Resource Center of Gwinnett to help provide free women?s health care to women who have unplanned pregnancies to promote healthy pregnancy and alert clients to complications, such as multiple births.

$15,000 to Tree House, Inc., an agency focused on reducing the occurrence and impact of child abuse in Barrow, Banks and Jackson counties, to upgrade its information technology system and better support its clients' research, education and therapy needs.

Individual Grant Recipients:

$867 for HVAC system repairs and prescription medication to a disabled senior citizen.

$900 for electric heat system repairs to a disabled widow who suffers from emphysema and has been trying to heat her home with a fireplace.

$3,500 to replace the heat pump and ductwork in the home of a woman who has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and cancer.