Nearly 90 Consumers Energy Interns Make Impact on Michigan Communities Through Annual Challenge

JACKSON, Mich., Aug. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers Energy's interns made an impact on communities across Michigan this summer, helping feed over 3,000 people, picking up nearly 450 pounds of trash and providing educational programming for 120 children.

Nearly 90 interns did this work and more through Consumers Energy's annual Intern Challenge. The summer employees gave their time to 18 organizations.

"Giving back to the communities we serve is part of the DNA of Consumers Energy," said Carolyn Bloodworth, Consumers Energy's director of corporate giving. "The Intern Challenge strengthens the idea that a meaningful professional career should also include volunteer service to nonprofits that work so tirelessly for our state."

Last year, Michigan nonprofit organizations received more than $6.5 million in contributions from Consumers Energy, its employees, retirees, its foundation and the utility's parent company, CMS Energy. That doesn't count the thousands of hours that employees spent volunteering.

Consumers Energy's Intern Challenge is a competition that encourages interns to develop creative solutions to needs in the communities the company serves. Interns who took part in the competition work in a variety of areas for Consumers Energy, from engineering to information technology to corporate security.

Among the winning Intern Challenge teams' activities:

• Volunteered for Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan, teaching and helping Girl Scouts to apply STEM principles to construct a picnic table.
• Prepared and packaged 500 sandwiches and assisted in the renovation of a future farmers market in metro Detroit.
• Made food bags to feed 250 young teens with nutritional meals at Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, and cleaned up trash around Kalamazoo's Verburg Park.

Where they volunteered

Consumers Energy interns gave their time to 18 Michigan nonprofit organizations this summer:

• Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center
• Greater Jackson Habitat for Humanity
• Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan
• Jackson Area Manufacturer's Association (I Can Make It! Camp)
• Ann Arbor Hand-On Museum event (Royal Oak Public Library)
• Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties
• Jackson City Parks and Recreation Department
• MediLodge of Midland
• Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes
• City of Kalamazoo (Verburg Park)
• Jackson County Health Department
• Lakeshore Habitat for Humanity
• Ottawa County Parks and Recreation
• Forgotten Harvest
• Growing Hope
• Jackson District Library
• Ludington State Park
• Cherry Festival Heritage Parade

Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest utility, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and electricity to 6.7 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

For more information about Consumers Energy, go to www.ConsumersEnergy.com.

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SOURCE Consumers Energy

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