OEC employees raise $10K for charities

Oconto Electric Cooperative employees recently gave $5,000 to the Lena Public Library and $5,000 to Little Hearts for Life Inc. Each spring OEC employees choose a charity and raise money throughout the year via employee lunches, a candy bar sale, bake sale, raffle and employee golf outing. The Lena Public Library will use the funds to update its adult and child nonfiction section with books about health, dieting, cooking, crafts, decorating, quilting, do-it-yourself projects, autobiographies and poetry. The library belongs to the Outagamie Waupaca Library System, a consortium of 49 public libraries in northeast Wisconsin. OWLSnet allows library patrons to borrow books, music and movies from other libraries if the materials are not available at their library. Not only will Lena benefit from the new books, but other libraries will also. Little Hearts for Life Inc. is a nonprofit organization started in 2013 by Joel and Ginny O’Harrow, of Oconto Falls. In 2009 the O’Harrows’ son, Gannon, was born at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee with a congenital heart defect. By the time Gannon was 5 months old, he had already undergone three open-heart surgeries, and at 14 months he received a heart transplant. Little Hearts for Life Inc.’s mission is to bring awareness to and educate the public about congenital heart defects, fund ongoing research and to ultimately help change lives of those living with congenital heart disease. The money will be given to Milwaukee Children’s Hospital for chronic heart disease research. Little Hearts for Life, Inc. raised an additional $35,000 this year at its annual corn roast. Since 2004, the Oconto Electric employee charity has awarded $56,000 to charities and organizations such as Home Respite Care, Old Glory Honor Flight, the Oconto Police K-9 Unit and local schools.