Tuesday, April 10, 2012 4:20 pm

From left are CCSCC members Ann Gaither, Wilma Johnson, Dorothy Miller and Director Connie Rigsby display a replica check for $10,000 donated by MTE’s Customers Care. In back from left are members Maureen Mackey and Virgil Young.

Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation’s Customers Care has donated $4,000 of its Operation Round Up funds to Cannon County Senior Citizens Center.

“We are excited to receive the funds to help purchase a new piece of exercise equipment and sponsorship of our 5K run,” Cannon County Senior Citizens Center director Connie Rigsby said. “The members of MTEMC have been a great partner in promoting the health of our seniors.”

Since the opening of the center’s doors in 1968, the facility has helped provide active older adults ages 60-plus with opportunities for education, nutrition, socialization and recreational lifestyles. However, the senior center is not just limited to helping that age group only.

Operation Round Up began in 2003 and has distributed more than $5.5 million into MTEMC’s communities.

The initiative “rounds up” members’ bills to the next highest dollar, with that extra change set aside for worthy causes. It is the responsibility of the Customers Care Board, which is composed of seven MTEMC members, to evaluate grant requests and send the money back to qualifying organizations.

Incoming contributions are tracked by county so the Customers Care Board can do its best to ensure money contributed by members in a certain county goes to that county. Any balances are carried over each month.

MTE Customers Care funds may not be used for political or expressly religious purposes, schools or school-related organizations.