PECO Honors Mothers With Crown Lights Message; Anna Jarvis, Founder of Mother's Day, Was Company's First Female Employee

PHILADELPHIA, May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The message "A Mother's Love Is New Everyday. Happy Mother's Day!" will run atop PECO's corporate headquarters in celebration of Mother's Day. The crown lights message is another connection between the company, the City of Philadelphia and the national holiday that was created by Anna Jarvis, the first woman employee of PECO's predecessor company, the Edison Electric Light Company. Mother's Day was first celebrated in Philadelphia in 1908. The message is scheduled to run approximately every five minutes from dusk to dawn from Friday evening through Monday morning.

Anna Jarvis moved to Philadelphia in 1890, and swore at her mother's grave to establish a day honoring mothers. She was successful. In 1912, West Virginia became the first state to adopt an official Mother's Day celebration and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson established the national celebration of Mother's Day. Jarvis was employed at the company from October 3, 1892 to 1936, as a stenographer to the president. Anna Jarvis never had children of her own. She died in 1948, blind and penniless, and was buried next to her mother in the West Laurel Hill cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

The crown lights message board sits at the top of the company's corporate headquarters at 2301 Market Street, Philadelphia and has been displaying messages since July 4, 1976, as part of PECO's commitment to community. The company runs more than 3,000 messages of local interest focusing on activities and events sponsored by non-profit and civic organizations.

Based in Philadelphia, PECO is an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation . PECO serves 1.6 million electric and 470,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. In 2005, the company delivered 38.7 million megawatt-hours (Mwh) of electricity and 85.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas to residential, business and institutional customers. PECO's energy delivery services generated $4.91 billion in revenue for Exelon. Founded in 1881, PECO is one of the Greater Philadelphia Region's most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations.

CONTACT: Cameron Kline of PECO, +1-215-841-5555.