Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Awards $8,000 in Community Giving Grants to Four Area Non-Profits

7/26/2022

FORT SMITH, Arkansas (July 26, 2022) – Arkansas Oklahoma Gas (AOG) is committed to being a good community partner and neighbor. Each year, AOG donates resources to worthy causes that maintain and improve the sense of community in the areas it serves. AOG recently awarded $8,000 to area non-profits as part of the company’s Community Giving Program.

Through AOG’s charitable grant and sponsorship program, AOG awards funding to organizations and businesses with strategies that align with its corporate priorities. AOG focuses on supporting environmental, health-related, and educational initiatives and programs, as well as economic and cultural initiatives geared toward improving the well-being of its community.

AOG’s charitable giving program grants were recently awarded to these qualifying non-profit organizations that serve the AOG service territory:

The Boys and Girls Club of Sequoyah County is developing a virtual reality career explanation program. The AOG grant funds ($2,000) will assist with the purchase of several Oculus headsets that will be utilized by this program.

AOG grant funds ($2,000) will support the Arkansas Family Alliance bed project. Often during foster care transition, children do not have a place to sleep and sleep on the floor. A good night’s sleep in a bed by themselves provides for security, rest, a renewed attitude, and better performance in a school setting. The AOG grant funds will provide the Arkansas Family Alliance with nine twin beds.

The Denver Street Missionary Baptist Church Food Bank provides nutritionally substantial meals twice per week to children in the community. The food bank also provides grocery assistance to families in need in the South Sebastian City service area. They were also awarded $2,000 in AOG grant funds.

The AOG grant funds ($2,000) will assist the New Start for Children and Families’ operating fund, which provides “safe haven” services for up to 300 foster children per month in the Crawford County service area.

“Providing community resources is just one of the many ways AOG can support our customers and community members,” said Fred Kirkwood, Chief Customer Experience Officer at AOG. “At AOG, we understand that we are only as strong as the communities we serve. We’re honored to award grants to these organizations that are the pillars of our community.”

Additional grants will be awarded to area non-profits in the coming months. In addition to supporting community causes, AOG provides members of its team with up to 20 hours of paid time off each year to volunteer in the communities it serves.

AOG provides natural gas service to approximately 60,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customers in Arkansas and Oklahoma. We’ve been serving the residential and commercial customers in Fort Smith and the surrounding area with safe and reliable natural gas service for nearly 75 years. Based in Fort Smith in the heart of the Arkoma Basin, this area is rich in natural gas production. That gives us the ability to access and transport natural gas produced from local wells. These local supplies, in combination with our ability to obtain natural gas from interstate pipelines, enable us to provide reliable natural gas service to all our customers. In 2017, AOG joined a larger group of natural gas utilities when it combined with Summit Utilities, Inc. This added expertise to the team, as well as additional financial resources, for ongoing growth and investments to protect the integrity and safety of AOG’s natural gas system.