National Grid and its employees have once again joined forces to help support United Way chapters throughout the company's U.S. service area. This year, more than 6,800 of National Grid's employees pledged more than $2.1 million to the United Way campaign. When combined with the company's contribution of $1.3 million, National Grid's total pledges for the recently completed campaign came to $3.4 million, matching last year's record-setting levels.

"I am so incredibly proud of our employees who continue to recognize the importance of giving, especially during these financially trying times," said National Grid President Tom King.

In addition to payroll deductions, employees from across National Grid's service area held bake sales, raffles, dress down days (donate $5, wear jeans for the day), a Fall Harvest Festival, a Syracuse University themed tailgate party, and "collect the change" events to raise funds for the United Way campaign. In one National Grid location, Albion, NY, 100 percent of employees donated to the United Way campaign this year. "It's easy to donate when you've seen first hand how the United Way can help those in need," said National Grid employee Patrick O'Brien, speaking on behalf of his Albion, NY colleagues.

"Our annual United Way campaign is one of the most effective ways we can give back to the communities in which we serve," said King. "For more than 50 years, we've depended on United Way's expertise to help maximize the impact of our contributions to provide assistance to people throughout our service area," he added. National Grid's support of United Way chapters results in assistance to more than 1 million people across four states.

Employee and corporate donations are broken down as follows: Massachusetts: $1,000,000; New Hampshire: $50,000; Rhode Island: $175,000; Upstate New York: $1,100,000; Downstate New York: $1,100,000.

Planning for the annual campaign began in late spring, with over 100 employees volunteering their assistance on events including Days of Caring, which took place in September throughout all National Grid service territories. Examples of Days of Caring activities included employees participating in the United Way of NYC's LIVE UNITED Bridge Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge; Syracuse volunteers painting and doing yard work at a local YWCA; volunteers serving meals at a local shelter; and Central Massachusetts employees helping the Birthday Wishes organization create "Birthday-in-a-box" packages.

National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers. www.nationalgridus.com

National Grid

National Grid

National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York and Massachusetts. National Grid is focused on building a path to a more affordable, reliable clean energy future through our fossil-free vision. National Grid is transforming our electricity and natural gas networks with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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