by Brad Hicks, NNEC President and CEO
Brad Hicks
This holiday season, our team is thankful for our community, and we are grateful for all of the opportunities we have had this year to make an impact on our mission to improve the quality of life in our communities.
I strongly feel that to achieve that mission and to align with our cooperative principles, including Concern for Community, we must be a team that serves in the community. By the end of this year, almost every single employee will have volunteered eight hours to organizations in our region. These nearly 500 hours represent a commitment to our community and its people. You may have seen us at over a dozen community events, including Richmond County Agricultural Fair, Kilmarnock Volunteer Fire Department Carnival, Healthy Harvest Food Bank, Northumberland National Night Out and several more. I am proud of our team’s efforts with these organizations.
Additionally, our team has invested over $20,000 in nonprofit organizations, and we have leveraged partnerships to bring additional monies to those well-deserving organizations. In the following pages, you will see some of the impacts of those investments and how they act as catalysts for opportunity in our community.
Lastly, applications are now available for the NNEC delegation to Youth Tour in 2024, an all-expense-paid leadership development conference for high school sophomores and juniors held in Washington, D.C. Over the last few decades, NNEC has sponsored over 60 students from the Northern Neck to attend this life-changing program. We are excited to send a delegation of students this year to continue shaping the lives of our next generation of leaders.
We are on a mission to improve the quality of life in our communities. We are committed to this community and to this region’s success, and we are all willing to put time and treasure into that mission. In this season of giving, we hope that you will join us in our mission by supporting your favorite local nonprofit with your time or your donations of items or money. If you tag us on Facebook or Instagram and add #ConcernforCommunity, we may match your donation this holiday season.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!