The Home Depot Pro Xtra Grants Support Industry Growth

Drum roll please! The IEC Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of its 2023-2024 The Home Depot Pro Xtra Awards and Pro Xtra Chapter Development Awards. Both are funded by proceeds from The Home Depot Rewards Program.

“It is important for us to support the IEC Foundation and IEC National in their passion and pursuit to grow the electrical industry,” says National Account Manager Alana Levy, The Home Depot Pro. “We’ve all heard about the labor shortages happening in the electrical industry today as the workforce begins to age out or enter retirement. We’re honored to partner with an organization whose mission is to contribute to the growth of the electrical industry and to allow all students equal access to education, apprenticeship, and training.”

“With proceeds from The Home Depot Rewards Program, our Board has voted to provide funding supporting the development and improvement of IEC training centers’ labs and classrooms,” says Tom Alexander, Atkins & Stang and IEC Foundation chairman. “The intent of this grant is to upgrade the educational experience of both apprentices and continuing education attendees. Funding is intended to be a resource outside of normal operations and the IECF equipment grant program.”

Insights recently covered how IEC Central Ohio and IEC Western Reserve used Foundation grant funds for major building, classroom, and lab improvements that greatly benefitted their students and communities. See Insights, March / April 2024, IEC Foundation Provides Very Real Benefits to IEC Chapters.

“The impact of our program and partnership goes beyond just what you might see on paper,” says The Home Depot’s Alana. “The chapter development grants provided through IEC Foundation have helped enhance the labs and classrooms with state-of-the-art equipment like flatscreens, electronic whiteboards, and new laptops. They have been used to provide new tables, chairs, and flooring, and revamp the overall esthetic of the building that is used to bring in the new generation of electricians.”

IECF Home Depot Pro Xtra Program

IEC members — are you participating in The Home Depot Pro Xtra Program? You can get 2% cash back on all qualifying pre-tax purchases. Not only will you benefit from this rebate, but in addition The Home Depot donates a half of a percent of the sales in this program to the IEC Foundation to fund the grants described here.

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Electricians Love a Competition

Help the Foundation and The Home Depot help you by participating in a small contest to grow The Home Depot Pro Xtra Program. The IEC Foundation will award a $1,000 Home Depot gift card to the chapters whose members have the highest total spend in the Pro Xtra program between September 1 and December 31, 2024. There will be three gift cards awarded, and each chapter will be placed in a category according to size based on all members.

Chapter leadership and executive directors: encourage your members already in the program and invite those not yet in the program to join Pro Xtra today and help your chapter come out on top! They get incredible savings and services just for IEC members. It’s FREE to join. Visit https://www.iec-foundation.org/iecf-home-depot-pro-xtra-program.

Categories

‍Large Chapters (75 or more Members) $1,000 (one winner) ‍
Medium Chapters (26 to 74 Members) $1,000 (one winner) ‍
Small Chapters (up to 25 Members) $1,000 (one winner)

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IEC of Greater Cincinnati Appreciates the Foundation and its Great Members

BY MATT HITTINGER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

TMI Energy Solutions, one of our contractor members and the largest commercial solar contractor in the state of Ohio came to me last year with the idea of installing a solar array. Mark Gillespie, president of TMI Energy Solutions, former chapter president, former IEC National president, and a great friend of mine was nearing his well-earned / deserved retirement and offered to donate the solar array project to the chapter so we could utilize with our training.

After further discussion and collaboration, we thought the project materials would be a great use of IEC Foundation funds through their generous grant programs and decided to go for it! We submitted the application for funding through the IEC Foundation Home Depot Pro Xtra grant program and were delighted when the Foundation came back to us with approval!

After the project started, we encountered material delivery delays as a result of the hindered supply chain, but TMI continued to push their distributors and the project finished in time for us to incorporate the new array into our apprenticeship curriculum for the 2023 /2024 school year. We had already been teaching about solar in the curriculum, specifically the AC / DC current aspects and how they relate to basic electrical theory covered in year one of the program, but with an actual working array on site, we now are able to take the students outside and physically show them how the principles and theory not only relate, but work. Additionally, we can cover the “how-to” installation side of solar by showing the structure, raceways, disconnects, and interconnections with utility power and building power. Lastly, we have a mobile app that allows us to show our students the energy production through different graphs and metrics which they seem to really like.

The IEC Foundation has supported our chapter for many years and helps us to always be forward thinking with our ways to enhance and improve our world class training. We have a great chapter here in Cincinnati; our members always step up to support continuous improvement and having support from the IEC Foundation definitely helps to take us even further!