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gosunsolarenergy · 3 years

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GoSun gives Solar Oven and Solar Powered Cooler Grants to Non Profits

GoSun is proud to announce the recipients of our Gifts of Gratitude product giveaway. 2020 was a tough year and we wanted to support individuals and organizations who are contributing to a brighter future and leading the fuel-free frontier by donating $10,000 worth of GoSun products. We had over 500 applications, which made for some very tough decisions for our team to make, but we were so inspired by the amount of people and organizations doing a lot of good in our world. Below, you will find the winners of these products, a brief description of their organization and a link to their project.

Flatware: Travel Cutlery Set: Kathryn Reinhardt,Makers Guild Inc.

Kathryn Reinhardt represents Makers Guild Inc. MGI increases impact by creating local jobs opportunities, empowering their workers and being involved in a downtown revitalization of an empty main street store into a makerspace. MGI hopes to launch a local makerspace for innovation, creative reuse/upscaling of items and job growth in a small rural, upstate New York town. MGI is an example of creative design and concern for the environment.

Flatware: Travel Cutlery Set: AI FENG CHEE, Individual as well asF&B cafe

Ai Feng Chee is an individual who has enjoyed using our Flatware often and takes pride in eliminating single use plastic. They also own a F&B cafe, where they plan to introduce and bring more awareness to eco-friendly products and influence others to make a change.

Flatware: Travel Cutlery Set: Melanie Kobran, Solidarity and Snacks (checkout @solidarityandsnacks on Instagram)

Melanie Kobran represents Solidarity and Snacks. S&S works with residents of Skid Row in Los Angeles to provide food and supplies for their living situations. These people have very limited access to power/water/sanitation in this area where just under 5,000 people are living on the streets in a very condensed area of the city. S&S works with community leaders who have established community kitchens.

Go: Portable Solar Oven: Pamela Sweeny,The Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Provincial Command

Pamela Sweeny represents The Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Provincial Command, this organization assists homeless veterans by providing them with backpacks filled with clothing, toiletries and other necessities. They’ve assisted over 900 veterans in 174 different countries including those who prefer to live off-grid and will benefit from a solar cooker.

Go: Portable Solar Oven: Solar Cookers International

Solar Cookers International is an organization that improves human and environmental health by supporting the expansion of effective carbon-free solar cooking in the regions of the world in greatest need. SCI leads through advocacy, research and strengthening the capacity of the global solar cooking movement. SCI has contributed to over 7.7 billion solar-cooked meals so far with various solar cookers and solar ovens.

Go: Portable Solar Oven: Stephen Gitonga,United Nations Development Programme, Regional Hub for Arab States, Amman, Jordan

Stephen Gitonga represents the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Hub for Arab States in Amman, Jordan, this organization aids countries in crisis contexts such as Yemen or those bordering crisis countries and impacted by hosting refugees. They plan to use their GoSun solar oven to improve social impact and contribute to clean energy transition and contribute to address climate change in these counties.

Go: Portable Solar Oven: Angel M. Sewell via Becky Townsend

Becky Townsend, had nominated her friend, Angel Sewall to receive a GoSun Go solar cooker. Angel is a traveling artist who lives in an RV and helps aid homeless people she comes across on her journeys. She is always willing to help everyone and will often give her last dollar to someone so they can go eat.

Sport: Fastest Solar Oven:Jennifer Gasser,Global Development Solutions, Solar Education Project

Jennifer Gasser represents Global Development Solutions, Solar Education Project, a local library that they work with has started a solar oven lending program in their community, which is the first program of its kind for solar ovens. The Solar Education Program provides educational materials, training and support. Gasser and her team are passionate about providing solar cooking educational resources to reduce deforestation and fossil fuel usage as well as educating to help eradicate poverty.

Sport: Fastest Solar Oven: Michael Chacon,Solar Smart Living

Michael Chacon represents Solar Smart Living, which is a renewable energy company focused on bringing sustainability to families. Chacon will use this solar oven to bring awareness of solar cooking to these families.

Sport: Fastest Solar Oven: Anders Hasselroth,GREAT WORLD CENTER

Anders Hasselroth represents his local resilience center, Great World Center, he has dedicated his life to creating resilient centers in order to help save our world. He raises awareness about solar products and educates people on how to use them. Anders products and distributes solar cooking videos and plans to put on events again soon after lockdowns have been lifted.

Sport: Fastest Solar Oven: Bob Lucy,Maasai Conservation Fund (MCF)

Bob Lucy represents the Maasai Conservation Fund (MCF). The Maasai village of Makuyuni is developing a permaculture demonstration farm to feed themselves and teach their neighbours about sustainable agriculture. Part of that plan is to reduce dependence on forests for fuel and are seeking the ability to cook with the sun with the aid of a solar cooker. The MCF works with the people of the village by implementing sustainable developed projects to improve education, food security and economic development all while protecting their environment and unique culture.

Sport: Fastest Solar Oven: Kim Ricket,Highlands Elementary School (Garden Program via PTA)

Kim Ricket represents the Highlands Elementary School Garden Program. The mission of the program of over 500 children is to build a love of nature in young children and to help them to understand the need to work toward a sustainable future. Ricket says that as the children take these lessons home, they see change in the community. They build an appreciation for nature in the children of today so that the adults of tomorrow will take better care of our environment. Ricket plans to use the GoSun solar oven to teach children about the science behind solar powered cooking and how it ties into their sustainability curriculum.

Flow Pro: Filter + Sink + Shower: Denise Luttrell,Colorado Navajo Resiliency Project

Denise Luttrell represents the Colorado Navajo Resiliency Project, this organization supports Navajo people who have no access to running water, this gift will go to a family living in a remote area with no access to water or power. The Colorado Navajo Resiliency Project raises money to purchase goods and accepts donations and then delivers them to individuals throughout the Navajo Nation. They supply both short and long term sustainability needs and in relation to GoSun, have already distributed over 25 Sun King Pro solar light kits!

Flow Pro: Filter + Sink + Shower: Steven Ralf,Eudaimonia

Steven Ralf represents Eudaimonia, a primary school in Kenya that is in need of a washing and drinking facility for the children and their families. Ralf’s business in Eudaimonia is committed to using permaculture pericesses and only using natural resources, they increase impact by encouraging entrepreneurial responses to social problems and developing free thinking.

Flow Pro: Filter + Sink + Shower: Brenna Holzhauer,Aldo Leopold Nature Center

Brenna Holzhauer represents the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, a nonprofit organization that offers a range of environmental education programming. ALNC leads the way to ensure visitors of all ages and backgrounds have the opportunity to connect with nature by offering positive and constructive learning opportunities that capture their interest, engage their senses and teach them to appreciate the interconnectedness of all living things. Some of their programs have adapted to take place mostly outdoors and they plan to use the solar powered GoSun Flow for an outdoor hand washing station.

Fusion: Hybrid Solar Oven: Greg Saxe,Freedom Trail Supply

Greg Saxe represents Freedom Trail Supply and offers free solar cooking demonstrations with GoSun solar ovens at school and events such as Earth Day and local potlucks to feed the hungry. Saxe educates attendees on the environmental, health and economic benefits of solar cooking and shows the effectiveness of everyday living to promote acceptance and use by creating familiarity and a user community.

Fusion: Hybrid Solar Oven: Pamela M. Smith,Change for Hope

Pamela M. Smith represents Change For Hope and has been working in a rural village of Kalitar in Nepal for 15 years. Smith has a plan that the GoSun Fusion solar oven will change the way that the women cook, but preventing smoke filling homes and preventing them having to haul wood for long hours everyday and ultimately will bring clean air to these families.

Fusion: Hybrid Solar Oven: Ian Dodkins,SunnyMoney (SolarAid)

Ian Dodkins represents SunnyMoney, which is a national distribution network specifically designed to ensure low cost distribution of renewable energy products to last mile communities such as Malawi. The GoSun Fusion solar oven will help Dodkins and his team test the quality, durability and feasibility of solar cooking as an alternative to wood cooking in these low income rural areas.

Fusion: Hybrid Solar Oven: Monique Pool,Green Heritage Fund Suriname

Monique Pool represents the Green Heritage Fund in Suriname. Green Heritage works to save endangered species such as sea turtles, dolphins, manatees, mangroves, sloths and anteaters. Pool and her team will use their new solar oven during their fieldwork to cook in the field without having to carry around and use a gas stove or harm the sensitive ecosystems that they work in.

Sport: Fastest Solar Oven andFusion: Hybrid Solar Oven: Solar Household Energy

Solar Household Energy (SHE) is an organization that strives to unleash the potential of solar cooking to improve social, economic and environmental conditions in sun-rich areas around the world. They employ the technology of solar cooking to combat hunger, the global threats of biomass cooking and address seven of the eight United National Millennium Development Goals; eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving mental health, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

SolarTable 60: 60W Solar Charger + Battery: Dawn Deydey,Wildsight Elk Valley

Dawn Deydey represents Wildsight Elk Valley, a non profit based in Fernie, BC that aims to protect plant and animal biodiversity and create sustainable communities in the Southern Rockies region of British Columbia. Their aim is to cultivate a thriving, knowledgeable and resilient local food culture in the Elk Valley through education, advocacy and community engagement. They’ve just launched a new local food store, run a local farmers market as well as a community garden and facilitate environmental education programs in schools. Deydey plans to use the solar table at the Community EcoGarden and Farmers Market events and access power at these events where they do not normally have electricity!

SolarEnergy Bundle: Charge & Power: Dean Seibert, MD.ACTS Honduras

Dean Seibert, MD represents ACTS Honduras, ACTS has been working in Honduras since 1986 to foster cross-cultural understanding and to promote sustainable programs for health, education, agriculture and economic development. ACTS works to address immediate needs of the community, support programs that encourage learning and leadership among adults and youth communities. Solar panels and a solar powered lithium ion battery (which also acts as a cell phone charger) will help bring clean power to the Honduras community.

Chill: Portable Fridge + Battery: Kerry Hughes,Ecosystem Restoration Camps - CA

Kerry Hughes represents the Ecosystem Restoration Camps in California and is building an off grid mobile kitchen to travel to disaster sites in California and feed volunteers who work to restore the land and communities. This organization started after the Camp Fire which destroyed the entire town of Paradise, they restore ecosystems through camping experiences that teach people how to care for the land, empower people to take this knowledge back to their communities and teach others to heal the land through restoration best practices.

Chill: Portable Fridge + Battery: Joseph Appell, Solar by Jos

Joseph Appell represents Solar by Jos, a non-profit clean energy consultant and presenter. He displays fossil-free/grid-free yard and garden solutions and works with energy fairs, Earth Day events and environmental groups such as;. Kiswaukee350, Forest City350, Audubon events, Galena Green events, and DeKalb EV show.

Solar Kitchen: Cook + Cool + Charge: Ron Swenson,Homeless Garden Project

Ron Swenson represents the Homeless Garden Project. Swenson, the landlord and a commercial solar developer, has donated the use of his land to this project for over twenty years. The project provides an incredible service to the community, bringing job training, food to the homeless and providing mid-day meals to their workers despite their kitchen facilities being very limited.

Solar Kitchen: Cook + Cool + Charge: Dave Law,Homes on Wheels Alliance, Inc. (HOWA)

Dave Law represents Homes on Wheels Alliance, Inc., a non profit organization that strives to help a significant portion of the American population who are being squeezed between the rapidly rising cost of shelter, stagnant wages or not enough retirement income through no fault of their own and at serious risk of losing their homes. Law and his team plan to use the Solar Kitchen in a recipient in need’s home vehicle.

Solar Kitchen: Cook + Cool + Charge: Cheryl Martin, donating toMedicine Horse Project

Cheryl Martin represents the Medicine Horse Project, an off-grid organization located in the high desert of Nevada that rescues abandoned, neglected or abused horses. These sentient beings provide healing to veterans coping with trauma, TBI, PTSD and re-entry to civilian life, as well as battered women and children. MHP will use the Solar Kitchen to bring warm water to clean horses eyes before medicine is applied, convert refrigeration from gas generators to solar, using solar to pump water to the horses, from the well and holding tanks, cook healthy dishes, make coffee in the morning and keep it hot all day and keep foods refrigerated.

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daemonluna · 7 years

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Parks & Rec fanfic: Pawnee Public Library

Seriously, why hasn’t anyone else written library AU of Parks and Rec? It just seems so obvious to me... Crossposted to AO3.

Leslie Knope has wanted to be a librarian since she was six years old. Leslie believes in learning and literacy, and that knowledge is power. Leslie loves books. She started out as a page when she was in high school, worked her way up to the circ desk, and spent her summers running the best and biggest summer reading program in the county all through university. (She still has boxes of the Dewey the Bookworm branded notebooks, pencils, balloons and tote bags under her dining room table, along with the first four successive renditions of the mascot costume, and all of her scripts and program plans in a series of cross-indexed binders.) She got her MLIS from Indiana State, and promptly came back home to Pawnee. Leslie manages the collections, children's programming, operational policies, staff training and orientation, community needs assessment, and ongoing grant applications and reporting. She loves her job as assistant director the same way Leslie does everything, with the passion of a thousand firey burning suns. She hates the Parks Department with the same intensity, and not just because Tammy Swanson is the director. Bunch of punk-ass dirt jockeys.

Ron Swanson is the library director. No-one knows where he got his MLIS. When asked to provide documentation to the city clerk's office, he handed over a heavily redacted faxed copy, with everything blacked out but his name and the title of the degree. Ron's views on patron privacy, internet filtering, and challenged materials are all very similar to the American Library Association's official statements on the same. Leslie would appreciate it if you didn't point it out to him, though. The ongoing battle between Marcia Langman and Ron over obscene material in the library collection is the stuff of legend. Marcia tried to ban the entire sexual health section, and since finding out that you needed to fill out a request for reconsideration for each book individually, is reconsidering her plan of attack. Marshall Langman is previewing all 137 books that come up when you search the catalogue for gay sex, just to be prepared.

Donna Meagle is the head of the circ department. She is scarily efficient, and god help you if you ever refer to her as "just" a library tech. After the take-down is over, you will find yourself working every Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday, and the day after every long weekend for the next year. (She is also in charge of the schedule.) The rest of the county knows that you had better not lose an interlibrary loan from Pawnee Public Library in transit indefinitely and damn well better do that shelf-check ASAP, and you do NOT hoard AV material and refuse to fill interlibrary loan requests, because ILLS are also Donna's domain. She once won a forty-seven minute staredown with Joan Calamezzo over a thirty-five cent fine, but latchkey kids and single moms are often surprised to find that no, they don't owe that fifty dollar fine for overdues that they've been agonizing over, Donna has no idea what they're talking about. Everyone, but everyone, gets treated with the same damn dignity and respect when you come to HER desk.

Jerry has paged and worked the circ desk for his entire adult life. The rest of the library staff had a yearly pool on the number of times he'll get his hand (and his head) stuck in the book drop. He hasn't been allowed to use the laminator since the incident involving Leslie's vintage Harrison Ford READ poster that ended in second-degree burns. Once, he accidentally gave someone a thousand-dollar credit instead of waiving a ten cent fine. To this day, no-one is sure how he did it, even the ILS software vendor, since the system's not even set up to hold a credit balance. His favourite part of the job is shelf-reading.

Tom handles the serial subscriptions and databases, and is the liaison with the local business community. He's the only one in the library who actually likes talking to vendors' reps, and is the self-proclaimed king of promotional swag. He is currently lobbying for a makerspace, and has big plans for when (if) the library gets a 3D printer. Leslie put him in charge of the monthly children's puppet show only once, which is the reason for the "no rap at storytime ever" rule in the staff handbook. Every other Thursday nights, when Tom is on the ref desk, and Donna works circ, there's a standing tradition of a supper break contraband pizza delivery from the upscale artisan place in Eagleton. (Treat yo'self.) Leslie must never know.

April started as the intern, but since she's been hired on permanently, her responsibilities have been expanding in a way she finds truly alarming. Donna will shamelessly use her to deter the patrons who have been upgraded from lonely and talkative to creepy and annoying. Lately, she's been giving them a deadpan stare and telling them that she's the lizard queen, followed by an extensive cross-examination on their views about organ donation. It has about a ninety percent success rate.

Leslie has put April in charge of teen programming, much to April's dismay. To everyone's surprise, it seems to be working, even though her original goal was to run programs no-one would come to. Her guest speaker "ask an undertaker" program was standing room only, and the extreme smoothie competition is set to become an annual event, even though Leslie nixed dog food as an ingredient for next year. April has a growing group of kids at her programs each week who could kindly be described as misfits, and find her equal parts terrifying and fascinating. She will forever deny that the puppy adopt-a-thon was her idea.

It's probably a good thing April doesn't know that Donna is considering putting her in charge of the high school-aged pages in the fall. She will terrify them with an iron, arbitrary, and occasionally benevolent fist, and they will quickly learn that texting in the stacks, or sneaking in one headphone to listen to music while shelving, in strict violation of Section 3.2.7 of the staff handbook, will result in experiencing her best pterodactyl shriek imitation in the other ear when you are least expecting it, followed by punishment duty Windexing dirty picture book covers for the next month.

After an extensive three-week training course that Leslie created from the ground up, Andy has officially taken on the role of Dewey the Bookworm for the summer reading program. There was a multi-part final involved. He passed the essay segment on the fourth try when Leslie hit on the idea of having him submit it as song lyrics, and narrowly avoided breaking bones on the obstacle course practical assignment in full costume. He's become a regular guest at the puppet show the rest of the year, with his guitar. Last month, there was some added excitement when he climbed into the air ducts and emerged with Mr Bitey, a special wildlife guest. Possums are no longer welcome at puppet show.

Donna and April have developed a method of steering Andy in the direction of the one bank of internet computers that face the back wall, by relocating the snack vending machine at the end of the row. Leaving some spare change in his path at the right moment guarantees that he'll wander right past the back row, then followed by "Hey, are you looking at PORN? In the LIBRARY? Ewww, that is nasty!" carrying across the library in Andy's loud, clear speaking voice. Some days, public shaming is even more effective than a six month ban. Unless it's one of the Saperstein siblings, in which case holding up a toddler to pull the fire alarm really is your best option. Ideally, the library would move the internet stations to a more visible location, but that would require rewiring the network cables and coring into concrete to do it, which costs a lot more than quarters for the vending machine. And this way is more fun.

Ann Perkins is forever grateful for ebooks and the self-check machine, because as much as she knows that patron records are confidential and as many times as she's heard Leslie recite the ALA's Library Bill of Rights off by heart, she'd still rather not look Donna, or god forbid, Tom, in the eye while checking out the regency pirate romances that are her secret guilty-pleasure reading addiction. She's organizing a drop-in flu shot clinic at the library for the winter. Leslie has a binder made up already with alphabetized tabs of contingency plans cross-indexed by severity and likelihood of occurrence. Ann isn't sure that they'll need the flood, earthquake, or rationing system for vaccine shortages for causes ranging from raccoon-related delivery delays to Eagleton-related municipal espionage. The last flu shot clinic was picketed, not by anti-vaccine protesters, but because the residents of Pawnee have confused vaccinations and blood donation, and were upset that there were no cookies and juice. This time, Ann will bring refreshments.

Chris Traeger once reclassified the library as an essential service, at Leslie's urging. ("Literacy IS essential, Chris!") Until the first blizzard, because essential services aren't allowed to shut down for poor weather conditions. Ron snowshoed to work, and kept the pipes from freezing with a butane camp stove and a carefully angled battery-operated fan. He was the only one who made it in, staff or public. It was the best work day of his career to date. Chris currently volunteers in his spare time by organizing an audiobook running club, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Leslie loves Ben, but secretly suspects that if he worked in libraries, he would be a cataloguer. Ben's organizing a multi-day Cones of Dunshire tournament, but is running into schedule conflicts with Tom, who's got the program room booked for an educational lecture series for small business community partners. Ben has a sneaking suspicion it's a multi-level marketing scheme.

Jeremy Jamm is THAT board member, the last person you want to speak to the media (or really, anyone) on your behalf, and who will show up like clockwork for any function where there's an open bar. He once got arrested at the state library conference's opening reception for an incident involving the association president's oldest daughter, a convertible, and a case of mistaken identity--or so he claims. The rest of that year's conference was the most relaxing event Leslie's attended since he joined the board. He's been trying to broker a deal with Sweetums to sponsor the summer reading program for the past eight months, even though it's in flagrant violation of two board policies and six operational guidelines.

Tammy Swanson is head of the Parks Department. Leslie has recently learned that Tammy is angling to have a park built on Lot Forty-Eight. Lot Forty-Eight, future home of Pawnee's first branch library, the best branch library ever. But Leslie's development plans are shovel-ready, she has all the matching grant funds in place, and her community needs assessment is a thing of beauty in twelve colour-coded, cross indexed binders with a custom-built multimedia presentation.

It will be several more years before the branch library is built. In its first year of operation, the roof will leak, the air conditioning will be nonexistent, and there will be a raccoon infestation of hideous, unimaginable proportions. The roof will be fixed, the raccoons will be evicted, and the air conditioning will work--intermittently. And it will be a labour of love. Because Leslie Knope loves libraries. (And hates the Parks Department, but that's neither here nor there.)

NOTES: It will surprise no-one who works in a library that the vast majority of this is pulled from actual experience, second-hand experience, or professional news/gossip (and in some cases, the original is even weirder than fiction), including: trying to ban the entire sexual health section, ILS quirks that can't be duplicated by the vendor (and don't hold a credit balance for found lost items that have already been paid), fine-waiving heartbreak, hoarding AV material and ignoring ILL requests, the desire for 3D printers for no reason other than it's cool, the need for creep-deterrent strategies, extreme food tasting teen programs, picture book windexing and no headphones while shelving, popping up from behind the filing cabinets to comment on computer use, toddlers pulling fire alarms, concrete coring for wiring and budget woes, the possibility of protesters, misunderstanding of what being an essential municipal service technically means, cataloguers (I love and admire you but could never be you), meeting room turf wars, drunk board members at conferences, sponsorship upsets and grant funding, and new branches with no a/c.

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