Generosity of spirit.
It is a core value that guides our community involvement at AGL Resources, as we strive to support and encourage individual and corporate efforts to give back to the communities we live in and serve. Financial contributions are nice, but we also believe that giving our time and effort truly reflects the spirit of the gift. Below is a summary of some recent employee activities in the communities that we call home.

From Illinois to Georgia, from Tennessee to Texas, AGL Resources employees volunteered on Earth Day in 2012 to commit "acts of green." Twelve activities were organized across the company. Here is a summary:

• Georgia: Nearly 50 Atlanta Gas Light volunteers dedicated their time in April to clean up the Atlanta Beltline, the site of future green space. Volunteers removed mounds of trash – including abandoned car parts fordecades ago. The Atlanta Beltline has been adopted by Atlanta Gas Light and AGL Resources, and is being built on former railroad right-of-way that rings Atlanta. As Chairman of the Beltline Partnership, AGL Resources' CEO John W. Somerhalder II is helping raise money for construction of this transformational green space.
   
• Illinois: Gas employee volunteers engaged children and the young at heart with interactive learning games and materials about energy efficiency at the Party for the Planet at the Brookfield Zoo.
   
• Tennessee: Chattanooga Gas employee volunteers cleaned up debris along Olan Mills Drive in Chattanooga. The company also held its annual Earth Day recycling drive. Bins were set up at the office, and employees brought paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastic soft drink bottles and detergent bottles from home for recycling.
   
• Houston: Sequent Energy Management employee volunteers visited Boys & Girls Harbor, a home for children who are victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment to teach them about Earth Day and encouraged participation in sustainable environmental projects. Employees planted new drought-resistant shrubs along the walkway leading to the school in La Porte, Texas.

In May, more than 700 employees from Nicor Gas, Nicor National and Nicor Enerchange, and their family members and friends came together to perform a variety of hands-on service activities to benefit local community organizations in 19 cities and towns across northern Illinois. Employee volunteers pitched in to complete 24 community service projects ranging from beautifying a local playground to replacing the turf grass and buckthorn with native grasses at a nature center. Nicor Gas also presented a $15,000 capital grant to the DuPage Habitat for Humanity at the project site in Villa Park.

Atlanta Gas Light volunteers in partnership with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity helped construct the first home in what will be an environmentally sustainable community in metropolitan Atlanta. The new home, located in Verbena Place, a subdivision in the northwest section of the city, was built at 134 Gaslight Lane, a tribute to AGL Resources Private Foundation whose generous donation of land was the inspiration behind the green-inspired neighborhood. Atlanta Gas Light has supported Atlanta Habitat for Humanity in 19 build projects since 2001.

As the 2012 school year began, Nicor Gas launched the seventh year of its Adventures in Reading with Nicor program, a unique plan designed to foster a lifelong love of reading among children in K-third grade.

To implement the Adventures in Reading with Nicor program, Nicor Gas partnered with three schools in its service territory to support local Reading Is Fundamental programs. Employee volunteers organized and conducted book distributions, school assemblies, and parent and teacher training. Nicor's own superhero, Super Reader, also made appearances to motivate the children to read.

In the first six years of the program, students from participating schools in Cicero, Country Club Hills and Aurora have read more than 200,000 books.

In April 2012, more than 400 walkers representing AGL Resources, Atlanta Gas Light, Nicor Gas, Nicor National and Virginia Natural Gas participated in March of Dimes' March for Babies walks in the communities they serve to help save babies born prematurely who are in need of help getting started in life. Virginia Natural Gas has supported March for Babies for 30 years, and Nicor Gas isn’t far behind with 24 years.

Virginia Natural Gas employees took a dip in the frigid Atlantic Ocean in support of the 20th Annual Special Olympics Polar Plunge. Through donations, the 2012 Polar Plunge raised more than $1.1 million for Special Olympics Virginia, with Virginia Natural Gas being one of the top fundraisers. VNG volunteers also donated a great deal of their time as they spent hours setting up bleachers on the beach, erecting the Team VNG Tent and also making sure that all participants were safe during the plunge. Held the first weekend of February, this Virginia Beach event includes a Friday Night Beach Bash, a 5K run on Saturday morning, an awards banquet and, of course, a "plunge" into the Atlantic Ocean.