Madison Communications has been serving central IL for over 75 years. We are committed to giving back to our communities and achieving the highest level of customer service. Part of giving back includes opening up opportunities for those in our service areas. Besides being a part of local chambers and donating to various local charities throughout the year we are also able to partner up with Foundation for Rural Services (FRT) in order to offer monetary and scholarship awards to our youth and local schools.

We just closed two opportunities for local students and had several students in the area take advantage of these opportunities. Rural Youth App Contest just ended on March 1st. This contest was open to students in 7^th-12^th grade. Student’s developed a concept for a mobile app that addressed a problem or improved a process in their rural community or in rural America at large. This contest was concept-based only and was judged on how well-researched and well presented the app was. Additional information on this subject may be found at:  https://www.frs.org/programs/youth-programs/youth-app 

The Foundation for Rural Service (FRS) also offered a $2500 college scholarship to graduating high school seniors.  Any graduating senior, with parents or guardians who subscribe to Madison phone, HDTV, or high speed Internet service could submit their application and accompanying documentation to FRS and receive the scholarship. We were able to have several local students take advantage of this opportunity.  Additional information about the scholarship may be found at: https://www.frs.org/programs/youth-programs/scholarships

And lastly, we kicked off our 14^th annual teacher of the year contest in on March 1, 2019. Just as we have done the last couple of years, we expanded the project to honor three teachers and award a total of $1,500 to local schools. The nominations will be taken throughout the month of March. Then we will post all of the nominations beginning April 1, 2019 and the voting will begin. Each person can vote for their favorite teacher once in a 24 hour period. The voting will continue throughout the month of April. Voting will end on April 30, 2019. The three teachers receiving the highest number of online votes will each be awarded a $500 prize to use toward a future student advancement project.  In addition, each winning teacher’s homeroom class will receive a pizza party hosted by Madison representatives. These monetary awards are just one part of Madison’s overall plan to dedicate resources to local school districts and students.

For questions regarding these opportunities or Madison’s services, please call1-800-422-4848, Monday through Friday 8am-5pm.