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Entergy Corporation delivered box fans to the United Board of Missions for the annual Beat the Heat program and presented funding to benefit the United Board of Missions and Meals on Wheels.

The deliveries were made Wednesday morning at the United Board Of Missions – Food Distribution Center in Port Arthur.

More than 120 box fans were donated by Entergy.

Entergy also presented a $10,000 check to the United Board of Missions for Meals on Wheels.

“Through their generosity, we were able to secure a grant from them for our Meals on Wheels program. This grant that we’re receiving will help us fund the program and continue the service to our elderly community,” Executive director Debbie Perkins said.

United Board of Missions leaders are looking for three full time drivers to help drive the meals and for a registered dietitian to serve as volunteer to approve the menus.

For more information visit unitedmissions.org.

United Board of Missions will begin giving out the fans, starting Monday, where anyone can come and get one during the 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. work hours Monday through Thursday at 6650 9th Avenue.

Beat the Heat is an annual fan distribution effort that Entergy Corporation partners with United Board Of Missions to help out the Port Arthur community with high summer temperatures.

“We at Entergy-Texas realize the need because of the scorching heat that is incredible in Texas, because we don’t do anything small in Texas,” Public Affairs Representative Karen Do said.

“We have extreme heat and we have extreme cold. One of the things that helps to alleviate this, we feel, are these fans, and it will alleviate the heat that is a lot of burden to our community.”

Entergy-Texas has partnered with local communities to distribute 27,100 fans to households in Texas since 2000.

Deshaun Armstrong, Entergy customer service manager for Port Arthur, says the city has unlimited potential to keep building the community.

“It’s a community that’s constantly building with the industry and with the community here,” he said.

“There’s a lot of potential within the region, especially downtown and working with the city manager. That’s unlimited potential, to continue that building, that partnership with the city. So I love working with them.”

Armstrong has been helping Port Arthur for a year now and is always looking at ways to help the city even more.

“Every year we try to see what we can do more for the community, especially those vulnerable and those in need,” he said.

“We’re always looking for different grants that we can give out throughout the community. So we’re always looking to give out to the community to see what more we can do as far as our side. To help lessen that burden throughout the summer as well.”

United Board of Missions began as a small program in the mid-1960s with the intention of acting against the effects of poverty in Port Arthur. Meals on Wheels is an ongoing United Board of Missions program that began in the mid 1970s and helps the elderly 60 and up or homebound.

— Written by Brian Quijada