As the nation’s 30,000 cooperatives celebrate National Co-op Month during October, it is a great time to take a look back and a look forward.
Take the history of your electric co-op. Kankakee Valley REMC was founded when neighbors worked together to bring electricity to our rural community. Big investor-owned power companies thought they couldn’t generate enough profit, so they bypassed rural areas.
Back then, there were frequent meetings among neighbors to discuss the formation of the cooperative. Once the co-op was established, its annual meeting was the “must attend” event of the year. The co-op, on behalf, of the member-owners was committed to providing the community with electricity.
Fast forward to today … and tomorrow. Kankakee Valley REMC currently serves over 18,000 residential and commercial members. To date, we have returned $4,878,870 in capital credits to our members.
We understand the spirit that helped create this co-op must be continually nurtured. While times and technology will continue to change, our commitment to you will not.
Although we started out to provide electricity, our impact (with your support) has grown. Today, we offer services to help our members save energy and money through our energy advisor program and the free energy assessments.
For members who look for green alternative energy, we launched Co-op Solar as an affordable way to give members an alternative energy source that is good for the environment. Just as when we brought electricity to the rural areas over 75 years ago, today we are investigating how we can lead the initiative to bring another vital service: broadband internet.
As we continue to look toward the future, you can be confident that Kankakee Valley REMC is committed to exploring new ways to help our members and our community.
Over the years, as we’ve listened to you and your fellow co-op member-owners, we know that we must keep pace as your needs and technologies evolve. As always, we welcome your participation by continuously staying involved and letting us know how we are doing as we plan for the future.
