Alabama Power volunteers support students heading back to school

As students returned to classrooms, volunteers with the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO) were a step ahead of them, supporting back-to-school projects statewide. The volunteers helped students, their families and school systems by lending their muscle to support a range of activities, from school supply drives and giveaways to campus fix-ups and cleaning projects.

“APSO volunteers lay the foundation for students to pay it forward by fostering the development of critically thinking adults who will provide the same support for future generations,” said Amanda Lofton, APSO State Board president and member of the Plant Barry APSO chapter in southwest Alabama.

APSO is a nonprofit organization made up of employees of Alabama Power and Alabama-based employees of Southern Company and Southern Nuclear. With nine chapters across the state, APSO volunteers devote more than 25,000 hours of service each year to support education, protect the environment and improve Alabama communities.

Plant Barry APSO volunteers helped The Learning Tree campus in Mobile prepare for the upcoming school year by painting and organizing classrooms and cleaning a campus shed. Plant Barry volunteers also stuffed backpacks at Feeding the Gulf Coast to provide meals for children who don’t have enough to eat at home.

Across the state in Headland, the Southeast Farley chapter of APSO stuffed 500 backpacks in honor of retired Alabama Power lineman Glovers McKay. Residents in the area also donated school supplies. Chapter volunteers also helped Phenix City Intermediate School’s incoming sixth graders find their way around campus on the first day of class, providing a helping hand and friendly face to ease new school jitters.

The Mobile APSO Chapter also gathered school supplies and donated to local schools in the area, while the company’s Eastern Division APSO chapter partnered with the mentoring organization 2MEE and United Way of North Talladega County for their annual Back to School Empowerment Rally in Talladega. The Eastern Division volunteers helped pack clear and mesh backpacks with school supplies, and also assisted Floyd Elementary School in Gadsden with its Kinder Camp mock first day of school for students, parents and teachers.

In the Birmingham area, Shelby County volunteers with the Magic City Chapter of APSO held a back-to-school drive that benefited Project Love Pelham, hosted by Pelham Church of God. The goal: to provide backpacks and school supplies for 500 K-12 students. The drive ran from July 3 to July 21. Other APSO Magic City volunteers provided backpacks and school supply kits for more than 50 children in the Birmingham region.

And in West Alabama, volunteers with the company’s Western Division APSO Chapter held a back-to-school Family Fun Day at a water park in Fayette where they collected school supplies for K-12 students.

To learn more about APSO and community volunteerism by Alabama Power employees and retirees, visit powerofgood.com.