Looking for a new opportunity to serve the community, Southern Pine Electric Cooperative has chosen to sponsor a new program that will put a stocking filled with goodies in the hands of homebound seniors this Christmas.

“We are very dedicated to our communities,” said Melanie Harrison, manager of communications for Southern Pine. “We live it every day here.

“We wanted to do something that would directly benefit our service area and our neighbors.”

Harrison said she knows that many area residents on fixed incomes often have to decide between paying for medicines or food or other bills.

So the company, which has previously collected items for Operation Christmas Child, decided to create a new program that would give them the opportunity to help local seniors.

Under the Stocking Up With Love program, area residents will be able to pick up a stocking from Southern Pine and fill it with items such as soap, lotion, shampoo, slippers, notepads, pens and pencils, devotional books, crossword puzzles and other small necessities for seniors.

Southern Pine will collect the stockings from through Dec. 6 and deliver them to homebound seniors in time for Christmas.

Harrison said Southern Pine is working with organizations in the company’s service areas to get lists of seniors who are in need.

“This is a local mission that will directly impact people who live here,” she said.

And the cooperative had help finding a name for its new program. Responding to a contest from the company, 15-year-old Bayley Carden of Flomaton suggested “Stocking Up with Love.”

Carden won the contest, and now her school, Cornerstone Christian, is making stockings to help with the program, Harrison said.

Each stocking will also include a bookmark with Bible verses, an addition Harrison said is important to the company.

“We are an openly Christian company, and we want to keep what we do involved with Christianity,” she said.

Southern Pine will also continue its holiday food drive this year, beginning collections of non-perishable goods Nov. 25 and continuing through Dec. 11. Last year the company collected 2,500 pounds of food.

Everyone who brings three food items is entered into a drawing for $50 at each of Southern Pine’s four offices.