April 26, 2017
All over the world there are students who do not have access to electricity. These students rely on kerosene light or paraffin candles to study, work, ready and play when the sun goes down. One of the ways that One Million Lights helps bring clean, renewable solar light to these students is through One Million Students’ school partnerships. These schools fundraise to bring lights to these kids all over the world.
Menlo School
On February 27th, Menlo Middle School in Atherton engaged in a school wide project to earn lights for children in the 
Bopolu District, Gbarpolu County, rural Liberia, West Africa. Menlo students teamed up to learn about the power of solar and completed a list of challenges using the One Million Light’s Solar Education kits. For every challenge completed, a solar light was donated to students in rural Liberia so they can safely work on their homework after dusk. This activity kicked of a week of service learning at MenloSchool. Monday began with a global assembly featuring Anna Sedana as the keynote speaker. Anna shared her story of the founding of One Million Lights with the students and inspired them join her in contributing to her goal. That morning students completed enough solar challenge questions to send 260 solar lights to Liberia. The remainder of the week, students took a more local focus helping others in their immediate community. Menlo Middle School Director Lowery points out that this dedicated week is just one example of the school’s aspirations to instill a philanthropic spirit within its students. “Our mission is to inspire and empower Menlo students to have meaningful impact in our local and global community through acts of service.”
Saratoga Elementary School
Saratoga Elementary School in Saratoga, CA is one of these schools. Students make and sell crafts and tasks to their community. During the 2015-2016 they raised enough funds to bring 500 lights to students in Liberia for the Lights for Darkness project and this 2016-2017 school year they raised enough funds to bring 500 more lights to students inCameroon for 2 different project: Cameroon sports and sol-light project.
Altona Middle School
In January, students from Altona Middle School in Longmont, Colorado, learned about solar energy and the need for clean lighting alternatives to Kerosene by our partner Nokero. After the presentation, students raised fund to bring 100 lights to students who do not have access to clean lights. Most of those lights will be going to Peru this summer with one of our Global Ambassadors.
Pennsylvania Envirothon
One Million Lights teacher, Pam Ulicny and Director of Operations, Jen Greene will be travelling to the Pennsylvania Envirothon at the end of May. The Envirothon is a program designed to cultivate a desire to learn more about our natural environment through competitive events. One Million Lights is participating this year by have the students participate in our One Million Students’ “Time To Tinker” lesson plan and will get the opportunity to build their own solar LED jar light using Sundance Solar’s kit.
Please reach out to [email protected] to get your school involved.
