Pelton Round Butte workers raise $21,000 for nonprofits

Employees of the Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project raised more than $21,000 for Central Oregon non-profit organizations as part of their annual employee giving campaign this fall. Together with a company match for Portland General Electric employee contributions, a total of more than $42,000 will benefit nearly 20 different organizations working to help people, the environment and communities in Jefferson, Deschutes and Crook counties.

“There was an overwhelming response from the Pelton Round Butte employees,” said Janis Dinkel, one of four employees who volunteered to help coordinate the campaign. “Our co-workers truly have big hearts when it comes to helping and giving to others. The generous results exceeded our expectations.”

Recipients of the money include Central Oregon Animal Friends, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Red Cross, the NW Ecological Research Institute and others.

The single largest beneficiary, voted on by the contributing employees, is Heart of Oregon Corps, of Bend. Heart of Oregon provides job skills training, education, and leadership development to over 300 local young people in Central Oregon each year who face major barriers to success. Heart of Oregon will receive more than $32,000 from the campaign over the course of 2017, with the remaining $10,000 distributed to other non-profits during the year.

“PGE employees’ generosity will make a substantial, meaningful difference for local young people who are learning job skills and pursuing their educational goals at Heart of Oregon Corps,” commented Laura Handy, Heart of Oregon’s executive director. “It’s inspiring to help youth overcome barriers and thrive when they have support, structure, and meaningful work to complete.”

PGE’s annual employee giving campaign this year, company-wide, raised a total of more than $2.2 million, which will be distributed across more than 1,400 non-profit organizations.

In addition to the giving campaign, Pelton Round Butte Project employees “adopted” a family in need during the holidays, providing decorations, a holiday meal and gifts both festive and practical to help the family start a new year.

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon and PGE are co-owners and partners at the hydroelectric project, which generates enough emissions-free electricity to serve a city the size of Salem, using a complex of three dams on the Deschutes River near Madras. The project co-owners are currently leading a long-term, collaborative effort to reintroduce native salmon and steelhead to the Deschutes basin above the hydro project, while improving habitat and water quality.