Cumberland Connect, a subsidiary of Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation (CEMC), is proud to present the second annual Small Business Showcase Awards. The awards were created as a fun way to highlight and support local small businesses within their service area.
The nomination period is between September 28 and October 25, 2024. During this period, CEMC members can nominate as many businesses as they’d like. Nominations must be made via the online form found here. Everyone nominating a business will have their name entered for a random prize drawing. For complete rules, click here.
Each CEMC member who nominates at least one business will be entered to win a random drawing for one of five prize packages containing a Tennessee Cutting Board, an Amazon Echo Dot, and Cumberland Connect Swag.
They will shout out eligible nominated businesses on their website, social media, and during a special Facebook Live broadcast.
Nominated businesses will be separated into categories, and members will then vote for their favorite businesses in each category during the voting period, between October 29 and November 15. During the voting period, individuals can vote for as many businesses as they’d like from each category on their website once voting is open. Voting will be limited to one form submission per person per day.
The winning businesses in each category will receive a one-time $70 bill credit and a Cumberland Connect Swag Package.
Five member winners, along with the five winning businesses, will be announced during a special Facebook Live TBD. All winners will be contacted via email.
The Small Business Showcase Awards build up to Small Business Saturday on November 25, which is a fantastic time to shop local and support small businesses during the holiday season.
Cumberland Connect was formed by CEMC in 2019 after the State of Tennessee passed the 2017 Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act. The act provides broadband resources to the state’s unserved and underserved areas through the Broadband Accessibility Grant Program. Grants allow broadband providers to expand broadband deployment to these areas in need.
“We believe every home, business, school, and hospital should have access to the best ‘don’t-have-to-think-about-it’ communications technology available,” says their website. “We created Cumberland Connect to provide it.”
CEMC was chartered on April 20, 1938 by the State of Tennessee to construct, maintain and operate a rural electric distribution system. They began in Montgomery County, but now serve all or part of five counties — Cheatham, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart and Sumner.
In 1938, there were only 610 members and 100 miles of line compared to a membership of 110,408 and over 8,323 miles of line in 2023. In the first year of operation more than 3.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity were sold to members, increasing to more than 2.8 billion kilowatt hours in 2022.
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