Local farm family and New Philadelphia Schools say, Thanks a Million! for combined $75,000 in donations from Ohio energy company
by Jennifer Kneuss
February 18, 2013
326
Summary: The Quillin family of New Philadelphia, who operate a dairy farm on Angel Valley Rd., were recently stunned to discover they were to be the recipients of $25,000 from FirstEnergy Solutions in a random drawing. As an added bonus, the familys local school district also received a generous check from the energy company.
If the phone call comes that, because of a random drawing, you and your school district are going to receive a total of $75,000 with no strings attached, would there be some level of disbelief at first? Jan and Carol Quillin and New Philadelphia City Schools recently found out that this scenario was, indeed, true.
It all began when FirstEnergy Solutions, a power company that serves customers in Ohio and five other states, announced their intentions to launch an electric generation program in Ohio that would enable customers to enroll in a PriceControl program to lock in electric rates for four or seven years.
All customers who enrolled between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31, 2013 were entered into a giveaway for one million dollars, with eight businesses to receive $50,000 each and eight residential winners to win $25,000 each. Residential winners were notified that their local school district would also receive money – to the tune of $50.000. When the winners were announced, the Quillin family, who own and operate a dairy farm on Angel Valley Road in New Philadelphia with their children and their families, were shocked as well as thrilled to find out they would be receiving a check for $25,000 from the company.
New Philadelphia City Schools were also delighted to receive the FirstEnergy check for $50,000. Both were presented at the February 11 school board meeting by FirstEnergy representatives. Jan and Carol Quillin smiled broadly as they accepted a larger than life replica of the actual check, while two of their grandchildren, Sienna and Rance Quillin, excitedly snapped pictures. The Quillins have four children and 14 grandchildren.
We are just so thankful to receive this generous check, said Jan Quillin. Were also really glad that our school district received $50,000.
Our son-in-law, Tim Krajenke told us it was a good opportunity to sign up. I didnt believe the lady who contacted us when she called and said congratulations, youve just won $25,000. We really asked a lot of questions, and we couldnt believe it. It took a long time for her to convince us. Then we were thrilled! said Carol. First thing we did was that we tithed a little more than 10% of it to our church. Then we gave each of our children a little bit of it, and we put the rest in the bank, said Carol.
Board president Todd Cox accepted a check on behalf of the Board of Education and the district.
We plan to use these funds for our districts current technology and building security upgrade needs, Cox stated. With all the cuts in the amount of money we receive to operate from the State of Ohio we have endured in recent years, this donation from FirstEnergy is greatly appreciated as we continue to struggle to fill in the huge gaps between expenses and available funds.
Cox noted numerous slashes in dollars provided by the Ohio Department of Education have meant that the district has been implementing stringent cost cutting measures as much as possible while still meeting their obligations to provide state mandated special services in numerous areas of education. Were looking at not just thousands, but millions of dollars in funding cuts to our district in the past few years, all while we must implement updated technologies and face intense security issues for our children, he said, and again emphasized the districts gratefulness for the energy companys generous donation to help in those critical areas.
"As an Ohio-based company, FirstEnergy Solutions is committed to helping Ohio's residents and businesses through this sluggish economy, which is why we created our Thanks a Million giveaway," said Donald Schneider, President of FirstEnergy Solutions, in a recent press release. "It's a good boost to our economy and it directly benefits eight Ohio school districts with much-needed funding."
