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For more
information
Call Karen
Turni Bazile at 278-4280 or 874-0980
St. Bernard Parish Government
8201 West Judge Perez Drive
Chalmette, Louisiana 70043
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May
6, 2008
CONTACT:
Karen Turni Bazile, Executive Assistant to the President
St. Bernard Parish
504-278-4280 or 504-874-0980
ENTERGY DONATES
$30,000 TO ST. BERNARD PROJECT
Group helping
rebuild St. Bernard Parish housing stock
Entergy Corporation recently donated $30,000 to the St. Bernard
Project to help the group rebuild the parish’s housing stock.
Entergy executives, other volunteers and the founders of the group
were on hand for ceremonies marking the donation. Entergy executives
and others spent hours the day of the ceremony working on
project-sponsored homes in Chalmette and Meraux.
“Entergy is proud to make this donation to the St. Bernard Project,”
said Leo Denault, Entergy executive vice president and chief
financial officer. “This is a very effective group that efficiently
uses its funds to help this hard-working, tight-knit community.”
Liz
McCartney, who co-founded the group two years ago with her friend
Zack Rosenburg, said,
“We started our
first home in the summer of 2006, and with great partners like
Entergy, we’ve been able to get 117 families into homes so far.
We’re in the process of working on 27 more as we speak.”
The Chalmette home
on Plaza Road is being rebuilt for the family of Martina Wiggins.
Ms. Wiggins will be sharing the home with her mother, her sister,
her grandfather and three children once work is complete. Their home
in Violet was damaged by Katrina.
“This entire
process has been great. The volunteers have been tremendous, and
we’d like to thank Entergy for helping support the St. Bernard
Project,” Ms. Wiggins said. “Everyday I come by after work and I’ll
see something new or different and I’ll get excited. My entire
family can’t wait to move in.”
Ms. Wiggins found
out about the project through an Internet search done by her mother,
Martina Duplessis. Once they filled out an application, “things have
just kept rolling along. We should be in the home in a couple of
months,” Ms. Wiggins said.
Renae Conley,
president and chief executive officer of Entergy Louisiana LLC, was
helping prime framing Thursday morning. “Studies show that
affordable housing builds a strong foundation for long-term economic
growth in communities. We are excited to partner with others to make
home ownership a reality for families and help sustain and grow the
economy in our neighborhoods and communities,” she said.
Entergy has a long
history of providing help to rebuild the region:
·
Establishing the Power of Hope Fund 48 hours after Katrina made
landfall. Entergy contributed $1.6 million and then raised an
additional $2.6 million from individuals and companies around the
world for a combined $4.2 million. Through these donations, more
than 4,000 families received individual grants to help begin
rebuilding their lives.
·
Since 2005, Entergy Corporation and the Entergy Charitable
Foundation have invested more than $11 million in grants to
nonprofits dedicated to strengthening communities and rebuilding New
Orleans and south Louisiana.
o
Other charitable giving highlights include:
·
$3.3
million for United Way of Greater New Orleans in employee and
shareholder donations over the last two years.
·
$400,000 for an Individual Development Account program designed to
help low-income families build assets to save for education,
homeownership or start small businesses.
·
$500,000 for a Community Learning Center in St. Bernard Parish.
·
$350,000 for Teach for America in New Orleans and south Louisiana
·
Through its Community Grant program, Entergy has provided funding
for projects through the St. Bernard Parish Library, the parish’s
Adult Learning Center and 4-H program, and has also helped a
neighborhood organization purchase street signs after they were
destroyed by the hurricane.
·
Entergy recently contributed $5,000 to the rebuilding of the St.
Bernard Community Playground, and employee volunteers helped during
the project.
·
The
company partnered with the Keep America Beautiful program to provide
a $500 grant to the Rediscover District C neighborhood organization
for the planting of trees for a planned walking path along the
20-Arpent Canal.
Entergy
Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in
electric power production and retail distribution operations.
Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000
megawatts of electric generating capacity, and it is the
second-largest nuclear generator in the United States. Entergy
delivers electricity to 2.7 million utility customers in Arkansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of
more than $11 billion and approximately 14,300 employees.
Entergy’s online address is
www.entergy.com
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