HAILEY, ID — The POWER Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Hailey, Idaho-based engineering and consulting services firm POWER Engineers, recently pledged to send $150,000 directly to schools to help alleviate challenges with distance learning and connectivity.

“The added pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have really illuminated the challenges so many schools are facing,” said Jim Haynes, foundation board President and POWER’s Chief Administrative Officer. “So many students and teachers don’t have the financial resources to get the equipment and materials they need to keep students from falling behind.”

The foundation plans to focus on more than 40 schools across the country in communities near each of POWER’s offices. The initiative will start with schools in Fort Worth and Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Kansas; St. Louis, Missouri; Boston, Massachusetts; Oradell, New Jersey; and Atlanta, Georgia before focusing on other POWER locations.

To be eligible for grants, schools must receive federal Title I funding, which is allocated to schools and districts with a high percentage of students from households with incomes at and below the federal poverty line.

“Many, many schools and students are in need right now,” said Gerry Murray, foundation board Director and Head of POWER Engineers’ generation division. “We want to make sure the foundation is focusing on schools and communities where we can make a real impact.”