Hey everyone!
A special shoutout to the 7th grade at West Middle School for participating in our fundraising efforts! To donate money, click HERE.
Thank you for all of your support and go West!
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power
“As human beings, we are vulnerable to confusing the unprecedented with the improbable. In our everyday experience, if something has never happened before, we are generally safe in assuming it is not going to happen in the future, but the exceptions can kill you and climate change is one of those exceptions.” -Al Gore
Learn more about Al Gore by clicking HERE.
Cherry Creek High School’s Ecological Action Club will be hosting a screening of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, a movie focused on the efforts of former Vice President Al Gore to educate the global population about the effects of climate change. We will show the movie on Friday, April 20th from 5-8pm at Cherry Creek High School. As an environmental club, not only is it important for us to do everything in our power to enact positive change in our environment, but also to ensure that the people in our community are aware of important issues affecting our environment such as climate change. Following the movie, a group of students will be available to answer any questions about important climate change issues or other questions about the movie. We are so excited for this opportunity and cannot wait to see you there!
Tickets will be $10 at the door and will go towards installing solar panels on a veteran’s home on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation this summer!
If you are unable to attend the screening, but would like to contribute to EcoAction’s fundraising efforts, please click HERE.
Love to all,
Riley Weeks
Ethnic Fest!
On February 1st, EcoAction had the pleasure of having a table at Cherry Creek High School’s Ethnic Fest, a celebration of culture and diversity within our community. Along with intricate henna designs, amazing performances, and crazy good food, our small contribution to the festivities were Belgian waffles! The money we made went directly to our Solar Panel fund. We are looking forward to heading out again this summer to install Solar Panels on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation! Check out what we did last summer by clicking HERE. For everyone who stopped by, thank you so much for donating your time and money at such a unique event! We hoped you enjoyed our waffles and see you next year!
P.S: Be sure to keep an eye out for our upcoming fundraisers, including PATXI’S PIZZA!
Peace,
Riley weeks
Patxi’s Pizza Fundraiser!
Click HERE to donate directly to Eco-Action
Greetings, Pizza lovers! Yes, I did say pizza! Ecological Action is having a fundraiser! Come eat with us on Wednesday, February 28th at Patxi’s Pizza on University and Hampden. You can also pick up a half baked pizza for later by calling 303-783-2000
10% of the proceeds will go to purchase solar panels for a family on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation.
To learn more, check out our blog from similar installation from last summer: Pine Ridge 2017!
If you have already joined us for Pizza, or are enjoying a slice right now, we really appreciate it! Thank you for taking the time to look at our website to see what we are up to.
Looking to donate more than 10% of your bill? Click on the link below to help! Our goal is $5,000 and we couldn’t do it without such a supportive community!
Click HERE to Donate
Continue to check this blog and share it with your friends and family to see what Eco-Action is up to and how the solar panel installment goes this summer! But for now, enjoy that pizza! Yum!
Peace and Love,
Riley (EcoAction President at Cherry Creek High School)
Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes
Happy 2018, Everyone!
I want to share my gratitude for the incredible recognition Ecological Action has received from an organization working to foster a generation of “world-changers”.
In September, I was awarded the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes “celebrates inspiring, public-spirited young people from diverse backgrounds all across North America. Established in 2001 by author T.A. Barron, the Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders ages 8 to 18 who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, and the environment”
The other students I was selected along with are passionate and remarkable activists in so many fields. It is an humbling honor to be selected alongside such inspirational people as a 2017 winner. I am so eager to see how the amazing projects each of them leads continue to evolve and impact the world.
Please read their stories HERE and get involved with a project that strikes you!
To the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes: Thank you for supporting the contributions and endeavours of youth. I am incredibly humbled by and exceeding grateful for the work you do to recognize, reaffirm, and spread the word about youth taking action and following their hearts. I never anticipated that the projects I lead would reach so many people. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to not only share my story but for buoying my hope that our generation is capable of solving each and every one of the issues our world faces.
All my gratitude and appreciation,
Abigail Weeks
Additional Publicity:
Colorado Parent: Colorado Kids Making a Difference
Mother Nature Network: Meet 20 kids who are changing the world right now
When Meters Spin Backwards
Thoughts from Abbie Weeks and Jeff Boyce
-Abbie Weeks-
Today we put up the last of the solar panels on Mr. Conquering Bear’s house and finished a project that began as soon as I returned from Uganda last summer.
I can’t help but smile remembering the moment the solar panels were live and began to generate electricity. All of the team was gathered around the meter and, as miraculously as working against gravity, it spun backwards; energy was going back into the grid.
Often times, environmental conservation works feels just like that: like working against gravity: as if pursuing sustainability means pushing back at some unstoppable force of economics or some inevitable path for our planet.
But this solar installation on Pine Ridge is another piece of evidence that the protection of our planet and the prosperity of our species are simultaneously attainable. Solar works. Renewable energy is a realistic solution.
This trip to Pine Ridge was full of not only incredible memories and people, but of a sense of community and purpose. Late night campfires and games of Frisbee strengthened friendships and created utter joy. Meetings with the Pine Ridge Housing Authority, lessons from the Solar Corps team at Grid Alternatives, and stories from local tribal members, strengthened my sense of purpose, and created profound awe.
I have graduated high school, and the EcoAction chapter at Cherry Creek High School will be passed on to new student leadership. Yet the experiences I have had working with communities towards affordable and sustainable energy are already writing the next years of my life. How lucky am I to have met so many kindred souls, to have traveled across the world and the United States, and to have the support of my community in this incredible adventure. I want to thank Jeff Boyce: teacher, mentor, and incredible human being for his undying support of my dreams. He helped me make so many of them come true.
There is always a finality to the closing of one chapter and the beginning of the next, but I have no doubt that EcoAction and you, reader, will defy gravity and continue to fulfill our responsibility to our planet and each other. We need action and activists now more than ever.
Best of luck, and my immense gratitude to each and every person I have met so far on this journey.
All my love,
Abbie Weeks
-Jeff Boyce-
I became an environmental scientist because I care about this beautiful planet that we share. I became a teacher because it is future generations that will need to solve the problems that we collectively face.
The PV install in Pine Ridge was complete when the net electricity meter slowed down and reversed direction. This was the moment that the 3 roof arrays consisting of 21 individual panels came online and began producing more electricity than the home was consuming.
This installation of this 7.2 kW system marks a decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide that is released by the combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity. This system will generate approximately 15,000 kWh of electricity per year. The Nebraska Power Association generates electricity for Pine Ridge and uses coal for almost 65% of that electricity. A single kWh of electricity from coal releases 1.2 pounds of carbon dioxide. This install represents a decrease of just less than 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.
This is real change. We don’t to need to wait for people in Washington to legislate change, we need to educate people and change how we approach our consumptive lifestyles.
I want to thank Grid Alternatives for allowing us to partner with them. This trip changed the lives of my students and opened my eyes to the power of learning outside the classroom. The folks at Grid went out of their way to educate, to engage and empower my students each and every day. They are true “Solar Warriors”!
Riley Weeks and Abbie Weeks Sending up the last of the solar panels
Robin, Abbie, and Lina
Solar Panels to the Roof!
Wednesday Roof Team: Claire
Hey everyone, I’m Claire.
A few of us woke up early for the sunrise gleaming over the lake we’re camping by, and it was breathtaking. The lake was calm and clouds bright pink. The clouds blew in and rained and rained, so the day started a little later than anticipated.
We got to Conquering Bear’s house around nine but lightning kept us from working on the roof at first so we tested and recorded the open circuit voltage (VOC) of each solar panel to ensure the whole system would be generating as much electricity as possible once installed.
Eventually we got up onto the roof around 11am. We worked in two teams on different sections in the house. Boyce, Nick (Solar Corps), Lina, and I installed nine solar panels onto the East side of the house and four on the West side. Which was pretty easy once you got the hang of it. A little muscle heaved the panels from the ground onto the roof and Lina and I helped straighten them out and bolt them in place. On the West side, the rest of the roof team worked on getting the rails up for more panels to sit on. After lunch we regrouped to work on running conduit (for the wires) from the different junction boxes (from the panels) to combine them into one box. Tomorrow we have to attach eight solar panels (on the West side) and fish the wires through the conduit. Other than that we nearly done!
Crawlspace Mornings
While the roof team may seem to have all the glory of installation to themselves, the ground team does merit some appreciation. Although the solar panels are placed on the roof, as well as the microinverters in this install, the electricity generated by the panels must be fed into the main service panel (an electric box) located in the back of Mr. Conquering Bear’s house. On the ground this morning I worked with Riley, Allan, and team supervisor Austin, in the crawlspace. We dropped the grounding wire down from the back room into the crawl space but the wire wouldn’t fit into the conduit at first so we had to bend new wires and try and fit it into the awkward space between the wall and insulation. The power is off to the home to prevent electrocution as we handle the wiring, so we were without lights in the crawlspace save a flashlight.
Austen wearing an arc flash suit to avoid potential electrocution while working on the main service panel
Eventually we got all the wiring in place so that when the panels are active, they will directly power the home!
In the afternoon we fed wires up to the roof that would connect the arrays and finalize the connections. Tomorrow we will finish the instal!
Riley places Caution sticker on electrical box
Lakota Solar and Henry Red Cloud
Today we had the honor of visiting Lakota Solar Enterprises, a company started by Henry Red Cloud. Lakota Enterprises is a native-owned solar company that produces solar heating units and provides green job training to help the community attain energy sovereignty.
Mr. Red Cloud led us around Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center (RCREC), “where Native Americans from around the country come to receive hands-on training in renewable energy applications from fellow Native American trainers. RCREC’s facilities also include demonstration solar air furnaces, a solar electric system, straw bale home demonstration sites, a wind turbine, green houses and garden, buffalo from the Red Cloud herd, and wind break and shade trees. In addition to educating about the benefits of renewable energy, RCREC’s workshops are creating green jobs for residents of Pine Ridge, as well as visiting trainees from other tribes. As tribal leaders learn how to incorporate sustainable technology into housing plans, employment training, and energy strategies, the impact will increase exponentially.” (from Lakota Enterprises)
We toured his workshop, sustainable farm, a straw bale house, and a portable solar trailer that he brought to the Standing Rock protests. Mr. Red Cloud is a passionate, kindred soul. His deep care for his community and for the land we live on is obvious in how he speaks. He discussed with us current affairs, the rights of Native Americans, and the inherent responsibility of all to take care of our earth. On the day we met Mr. Red Cloud he had spent the day planting thousands of pine seedlings. He is truly a pioneer and icon in his field.
From Lakota Enterprises
“For more than a decade, Henry has devoted himself to developing his expertise with renewable energy applications that are environmentally sound, economically beneficial, and culturally appropriate. Today, Henry is a twenty-first century Lakota Warrior, bringing green technology and employment to Native American communities. He reminds tribes that they can live sustainably and shows them that by embracing clean, renewable energy applications there is a way to get back to a traditional relationship with Mother Earth. As Henry says, “This is a new way to honor the old ways.””
Roof Team May 30th Robin Tutchton
Standing there with a line attached to my back and an harness that was too tight in the wrong places, I watched as a man I had just met demonstrated pulling up shingles and sliding in a metal plate with a silver rectangle with a hole in the top into the shingles. The metal plate, called flashing, would be bolted into the rafters and serve as a reliable mount for the solar panels.
My first thought was “oh please don’t make me do that I won’t be able to.”
But then I realized they needed help measuring out the area of the array. I volunteered to help measure out 48 inches between each chalk dot and 24 inches for the last distance. I nailed it, measuring perfectly and handling the tape measure with such elegance that it made the birds stop and stare.
But ruining my “on Top of the world” feeling we were called to lunch. Furiously I swallowed my mustard, ham and cheese sandwich and soon enough was standing back at the top of the ladder waiting to be clipped into my child safety leash.
We spent the next hours pulling up shingles and flashing them, once that was done, we’d install the brackets and bolt it into place and put on a washer and rubber stopper on top. Next I descended from my perch up above and began to help assemble rails that the solar panels would rest on. We then took the rails and carried them up to the roof. We then bolted in the rails and began to attach the inverters. First we wired up the rails by placing a cord and nailing it to the metal. Then we took inverters and screwed them in above the cord, and then at last we plugged them into the wire. Once that was done we looked around and saw that two arrays had been completed, this startled me because I was in such a trance of work. After feeling successful with being able to do the task I drove us back to camp – where we all slept gloriously.
EcologicalAction 