FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sparklight Awards $5,000 to Helping Hands of Columbus, Inc.
July 7, 2023 – Columbus, Miss. – Sparklight®, a leading broadband provider, recently awarded $5,000 to Helping Hands of Columbus, Inc. through its Charitable Giving Fund. Twenty-five nonprofit organizations across the company’s 24-state footprint received grants totaling $125,000 during the most recent award period.
Helping Hands of Columbus believes that through shared resources and cooperation, "the hands and feet of the church and community" can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors. They help those in need through a food pantry, filling in the gaps where depleted food stamps and monthly income leave their clients without enough resources to purchase needed food items.
“Helping Hands of Columbus will use the funds to stock the food pantry with the more expensive items that our clients are struggling to purchase, such as cooking oil and meat,” said Executive Director Jennifer Garrard. “These higher-priced items are not usually donated to our pantry and cost more than the highly donated basic canned food.”
The Charitable Giving Fund, which annually awards $250,000 in grants to local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations served by the Cable One family of brands (Sparklight®, Fidelity Communications, Hargray, ValuNet Fiber and CableAmerica), concentrates support in the following priority areas:
- Education and Digital Literacy
- Food Insecurity
- Community Development
Nonprofit organizations may apply for grants during open application periods each spring and fall. Applications for fall 2023 grants will be accepted between October 1-31, 2023.
The Charitable Giving Fund is an extension of Cable One’s existing corporate social responsibility efforts, which include:
- Supporting national organizations dedicated to advancing education and diversity, including the Emma Bowen Foundation and the National Diversity Council.
- Supporting the mission of Special Olympics, which provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports, as well as health, arts, leadership, and advocacy programs for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
- Planting trees through the Arbor Day Foundation on behalf of customers who switch to paperless billing. Since 2015, the company has planted 130,000 trees in its markets and national forests within the company’s footprint.
- Supporting the mission of Keep America Beautiful in cleaning up and beautifying communities across the U.S.
- Raising funds for Feed My Starving Children to make a difference in the lives of hungry kids around the world. Since 2018, Cable One has donated more than 46 tons of food to local food banks and nearly $400,000 to address food insecurity.
For more information about the Sparklight Charitable Giving Fund, please visit https://www.sparklight.com/charitablegiving.
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About Sparklight
Sparklight® is a leading broadband communications provider and part of the Cable One family of brands, which serves more than one million residential and business customers across 24 states. Powered by a fiber-rich network, Sparklight provides consumers with a wide array of connectivity and entertainment services, including high-speed internet and advanced WiFi solutions, cable television and phone service. Sparklight Business provides scalable and cost-effective products for businesses ranging in size from small to mid-market, in addition to enterprise, wholesale and carrier customers.
CONTACT:
Aaron Scherle
External Communications Manager