OKLAHOMA CITY—Long-time OG&E Community Relations Coordinator John Koons has been honored with Junior Achievement’s Gold Leadership Award, the organization’s highest individual volunteer recognition.

Junior Achievement is the nation's largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their futures and make smart academic and economic choices. Junior Achievement's programs—in the core content areas of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy—ignite the spark in young people to experience and realize the opportunities and realities of work and life in the 21st century.

Koons was selected as one of only nine recipients from more than 237,000 volunteers in the United States for the prestigious national award.

“John is well known for his dedication to volunteerism and his efforts on behalf of Junior Achievement,” said Paul Renfrow, OGE Energy Corp.’s Vice President of Public Affairs and Corporate Administration. “He’s also been with the company for more than 40 years, and much of that time he’s dedicated to community involvement, which is a core value at OGE.”

Koons received Junior Achievement’s 2013-2014 Oklahoma Crystal Apple award for having reached more than 2,000 students through his history of volunteering with the organization. At that time, he had volunteered for more than 91 classes and 2,079 students – primarily in Norman, Okla.

“We can’t imagine Junior Achievement in the Oklahoma City area without John Koons,” said Jo Wise, JA Oklahoma City Regional Director. “There is no way of knowing exactly how many Oklahoma City-area students he has influenced over the years, but it is most certainly in the thousands.”

In 2015, the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence honored Koons with the Outstanding Mentor Award from the David and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative for his work through Junior Achievement during the past 26 years. The award was is in recognition of Koons having taught more than 2,000 students, both in traditional classroom settings and through the organization’s JA in a Day program.

“I am blessed to work for a company that has a corporate value of public service; we give our time and energy to better the communities where we live and work,” Koons said. “JA is special for me because its mission is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed, and I enjoy working with the teachers and students,” he added.

Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company, a subsidiary of OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE), is Oklahoma’s largest electric utility. For more than a century, we have provided customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas the safe, reliable electricity needed to power their businesses and homes at rates below the national average. Our employees are committed to generating and delivering electricity, protecting the environment and providing excellent service to our more than 834,000 customers. OG&E has 6,700 MW of electric generation capacity fueled by low-sulfur coal, natural gas, wind and solar. OG&E is recognized as a leader in smart grid technology, leveraging this platform to provide customers with the award-winning SmartHours® program and setting the stage for an electric vehicle program that will include some level of public charging infrastructure, and advanced LED street and security lighting. OG&E employees live, work and volunteer in the communities we serve.

For more information about OG&E, visit us on the Internet at http://www.oge.com or follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ogepower and Twitter: @OGandE.