East Jordan students unveil new solar array on Earth Day
EAST JORDAN : On a sunny afternoon outside of East Jordan Middle/High School, students in the Shoe Club unveiled a brand-new solar array project that they proposed and helped finance.
The ribbon cutting on April 22, Earth Day, marked the culmination of a months-long project that saw the students raise $70,000 for the 30-kilowatt array.
“When Mr. (Matt) Hamilton first texted me back in September about doing something with solar panels, he was thinking on the scale of maybe buying one solar panel to power some lights,” said senior Nathan Newman during the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“At the time, I assumed we were looking at a small hobby project that wouldn’t be much of a time commitment. Seventy-one solar panels later, I realized to my delight that I was mistaken.”
The solar array project was first started in September by Hamilton, a teacher who founded the Shoe Club in 2008 as a way for seventh- and eighth-grade students to mindfully set personal goals, work hard, make good choices and walk in each other’s shoes.
In a typical school year, the club takes part in activities such as leadership conferences, dances, and a monthly cooking class, along with volunteering in the community. With restrictions brought about by COVID-19 putting a halt to many of the club’s usual activities, participants instead focused on the solar array project.
“I literally could not be more proud of this group of kids,” Hamilton said. “They joined the Shoe Club knowing this was going to be a working year and that we weren’t necessarily going to have a lot of fun projects and they still did the work and put the time in to make this year a success.”
Thirty Shoe Club members and three high-school mentors formed the EJ Solar Spark group. Over the course of the school year, they conducted research on solar energy and met with organizations, local businesses and other potential donors.
They launched a two-week crowdfunding campaign in March to secure the remainder of the needed funds with a goal of having the the panels installed by Earth Day. Hamilton said this is the largest student-led project that the school has ever attempted.
On April 22, the students showed off the newly installed panels to a crowd of families, school officials and community members who gathered for the ribbon cutting.
“I couldn’t be more proud, more happy with the support,” Hamilton said. “This has been a community project from the start of it, and there’s been supporters from the first day to the last day here.
This has been a lot of work and dedication and perseverance, and the kids have been in it and energetic, passionate. And it’s so rewarding and exciting to be here after eight months of sleepless nights and work and long days after school and on weekends and working with the kids. It’s just a very rewarding and exciting day.”
Matt Stevenson, superintendent of East Jordan Public Schools, said the project is “just amazing.”
“Us as a school, these are the things we try to facilitate,” he said. “This is true education right here. This is the whole learning process wrapped up in one and I’m proud to see it come to fruition.”
The new panels are visible along the slanted roof of the school’s auditorium. According to the club’s research, East Jordan Middle/High School is largely reliant on fossil fuels for its energy needs and the solar array is estimated to reduce the school’s energy expenses by 5.5 percent and reduce its CO2 output by 5.5 percent.
“It’s definitely going to help the community because solar power is going to be our future and it’s good to just get it started,” said Colette McLeod, a seventh-grade student and member of EJ Solar Spark.
“It was really heartwarming to see it come together. At first we were just doing a smaller project and a 20-kilowatt solar array, and now we’ve bumped it up to 30-kilowatt and I just really like seeing it all come together.”
The club’s work isn’t done yet. They’re still working on a video to highlight the project and are planning a community night so the East Jordan community can come and see the new array. There are also plans to tie the solar array into classroom curriculum at all grade levels.
“Ultimately, this is an educational display. Inside, when it’s complete, it will have a running video display of how much energy is being produced on a minute-by-minute basis.
Part of this was integrating it into our classrooms and letting kids learn what they have right in front of them every day,” Stevenson said. “It’s really a huge thing for our curriculum. You can talk about solar energy a lot, but now you can experience it and actually see what it is.”
Source: petoskeynews
