The Cuivre River Electric Community Trust Board is funding a record amount of college scholarships in 2019.

This year, 80 students from the cooperative’s four-county service area are receiving scholarships totaling $74,000.

This is the largest amount of scholarship money awarded in a single year through the Operation Round Up program. A total of 140 applications were submitted. Last year, $69,750 in scholarships was awarded to 70 students.

The Trust Board has awarded 2,239 scholarships totaling $1.2 million since 1997, its founding year. The scholarships have been used for undergraduate students attending accredited universities or technical schools and students seeking to continue their education.

This year’s scholarship recipients from Pike County were Allyson Huber, Chadwick Dowell and Jillian Lockard.

To be eligible for consideration, students must live in the Cuivre River Electric Cooperative service area and maintain a minimum GPA of 2.5 while attending undergraduate courses at an accredited university or technical school. Applicants are also asked to provide an official transcript and two letters of recommendation, write a narrative to highlight their academic achievements and state their career goals, and demonstrate a financial need. The scholarship may also be used for adult continuing education courses in their career fields.

Scholarships are awarded each June. The next application deadline is April 22, 2020.

Scholarship funds are donated by Cuivre River Electric members who participate in Operation Round Up by rounding up their electric bill payments each month to the next highest dollar. The funds, administered by a seven-member volunteer Cuivre River Electric Community Trust Board, are available to help individuals, families and organizations.

The goal of Operation Round Up is to help address needs in the areas of health, education, home weatherization, youth, community and emergency services that cannot be met with other resources. For more information on Operation Round Up, call 636-695-4837 or email tschmidt@cuivre.com.

Cuivre River Electric Cooperative is the largest member-owned electric distribution cooperative in Missouri. It provides service to more than 65,000 residential, business, commercial, industrial and agricultural members in Lincoln, Pike, St. Charles and Warren counties.