Center to celebrate 15-year anniversary with Volunteer Appreciation Day

A wildlife sanctuary in Slatington plans to commemorate its 15-year anniversary with a celebration of the installation of new solar panels.

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center will host a Volunteer Appreciation Day from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday.

At 12:30 p.m. the center will officially “flip the switch” on the solar panels.

The ceremony will be followed by an ice cream social at the Osprey House.

Lehigh Gap Nature Center, a superfund site turned nature center, will go net-zero with a new 23.5 kW solar system that will produce enough electricity to cover 100 percent of the building’s energy needs.

The system is funded by an $87,000 Sun Club donation, and is expected to avoid 49,560 pounds of CO2 per year, or the amount it would take 5,247 trees to absorb.

Sixty-five solar power panels were installed on the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s Osprey House last month so that all of its operations are solar powered.

Evoke Solar of Hellertown was in charge of installing the solar panels, which are designed to give the center 100 percent of its electricity.

The Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s solar panels are one of nine projects being highlighted in the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club’s summer road trip to celebrate its nine latest projects across four states.

Green Mountain Energy Sun Club has set out on a cross-country trip to celebrate the completion of its nine new projects. The nonprofit organization will be unveiling $1.3 million in innovative sustainability-related donations to nine nonprofits located across Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and Texas.

“Since announcing our 100th project last month, Sun Club has been busy developing projects with nonprofit partners across the nation,” said Mark Parsons, president of Green Mountain Energy Sun Club. “The Summer Road Trip highlights the diversity of the organizations that share the same core values. We are excited and proud to work with so many similarly minded groups that recognize the value of educating our communities on importance and benefit of implementing these innovative green initiatives.”

The projects will be unveiled between June 2 and Aug. 3 at community events to be held at each nonprofit’s location.

The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club is a nonprofit organization advancing sustainability for people and our planet by investing in communities in Texas and the Northeast.

Since the program’s founding in 2002, the Sun Club has donated more than $6.5 million to nearly 100 nonprofit organizations.

As a 501 (c) (3) organization, the Sun Club focuses on projects related to renewable energy, energy efficiency and resource conservation.

Contributions to the Sun Club come from Green Mountain Energy’s residential customers in Texas, as well as from Green Mountain, its employees, and other Sun Club supporters.

To learn more about the Sun Club, visit gmesunclub.org.