CORDOVA, Ill. — While many area children may already be thinking about holiday gifts of toys and video games, employees at Quad Cities Generating Station want them to have important personal necessities as winter arrives. On Tuesday workers from the Cordova, Ill. nuclear plant donated winter hats, gloves, socks and toiletries for more than 3,200 students in need.
The effort is part of the station’s two-month plan of holiday giving activities that kicked off today with visits to area schools to drop off the new items. Many children need warm clothing as winter arrives, and basic toiletries are always an important, but sometimes forgotten, part of donations.
“This is a great project, being able to give back to our community and know that kids in our area will stay warm during the winter months ahead,” said Ravi Patel, an engineer at Quad Cities Generating Station and project leader of the donation effort. “With cold weather coming back last week, we knew this would be the perfect time to deliver needed clothing to keep these kids warm all winter.”
Employees dropped off items at United Township High School, Moline High School and Rock Island School, which had the largest number of items donated due to student demand. Future donations will take place at Riverdale School District’s elementary, middle and high schools in Port Byron.
"We have a tremendous need for cold weather clothing at Rock Island High School and we are so thankful that Exelon is stepping up to fill this need,” said Kathy Lelonek, Family & Community Engagement Liaison at Rock Island High School. “The clothing will be distributed through the Rocky Resource Room, where we directly serve our high school students and their families who have critical needs like clothing, hygiene supplies and food pantry items."
Other non-profit projects in progress at the nuclear facility include a collection for the local Toys for Tots campaign sponsored by the Marines, a Thanksgiving food donation for 61 local area families and a first-of-its-kind virtual “Angel Tree” gift-giving event to benefit the needy families of Ann’s Helping Hands, a local non-profit organization.
Quad Cities Generating Station is a nuclear power facility located about 20 miles north of the Quad Cities near Cordova, Ill. At full power the facility’s two reactors produce more than 1,900 megawatts of carbon-free electricity, enough to power more than 1.2 million homes and businesses.
Dec 12, 2024
