Progress Energy gives back to community

Progress Energy is dedicating 100 days of summer to 100 service projects throughout the Carolinas and Florida to commemorate its 100th birthday July 13.

“Progress has a commitment to serve the community,” Mindy Taylor, spokeswoman for Progress Energy, said. “Not only with electricity but also with giving back.”

Locally, Progress Energy employees have four major service projects: three days of giving back and a large food drive initiative.

John L. Williams, a project planner at Progress and head of its service initiatives for South Carolina, said he got the idea for the food drive at his church.

“My church deals with Harvest Hope Food Bank,” he said. “We started getting letters from people thanking the church for being a food bank location and saying that they wouldn’t be able to make (it) without the food they were getting. Knowing that here at Progress we focus on community service, I thought it was a good project to tackle, and the need is all over the Pee Dee, so I threw it out there and everyone agreed.”

Food is being collected at 13 Progress Energy employee work sites. The drive will run through July.

Williams said the food would be weighed and disbursed Aug. 1 to Harvest Hope, along with two additional separate food banks in Aynor and Sumter.

Progress employees in the Pee Dee also will be taking part in the United Way’s Days of Caring. During those days, volunteers come together to help perform upkeep to the home of someone who isn’t able to fix the house on their own.

Employees in Sumter took part in a Day of Caring on June 20, and two more Days of Caring are scheduled for the end of summer for houses in Florence and Hartsville.

“I hope that the food drive and the Days of Caring will motivate those that are in need to know they have help,” Williams said. “To those of us that are blessed, I hope that we realize it and use this opportunity to give back. We just want to continue with people helping people.”

Taylor said such locations as the H.B. Robinson Nuclear Plant will be doing additional separate service projects, too.

“We are a company that cares,” she said. “These are employee-driven projects. This is something that they wanted to do and is one of many ways that they, along with the company, give back to the community.”

Completing 100 projects in 100 days is meant to demonstrate to customers Progress employees’ commitment to their service communities, Taylor said.

“The success of Progress Energy has always been associated with the positive growth of our service areas,” she said. “This initiative is just another way for (Progress Energy) to acknowledge and thank the community for its service.”

Progress came to be through a series of mergers.

Carolina Power & Light was organized July 13, 1908, through the merger of three existing companies — Raleigh Electric Co., Central Carolina Power Co. and Consumer Light & Power Co. — and was owned by Electric Bond & Share Co.

In 1926, the company merged with the South Carolina-based Yadkin River Power Co., Asheville Power & Light Co., Pigeon River Power Co. and Carolina Power Co.

According to a press release, the company continued to grow through mergers and acquisitions of small electric companies, municipally-owned systems and service-area expansion.

In 1952, CP&L merged with Tide Water Power Co.. The last major expansion occurred in 2000, when CP&L acquired Florida Progress Corp.

This merger combined all of the above into what is known today as Progress Energy.