At East’s annual craft show, NHS set up a craft booth where they collected donations to build a solar array.
SOLAR STRIDES National Honor Society (NHS) takes on an ambitious project this year as they plan to build a solar array for East. story and infographic eliza bush | photography cassandra mueller
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s she’s walking to her fourth period Advanced Placement (AP) Literature class, she rounds the corner and spots the gold poster taped strategically to the wall. She reads each word, even though she’s seen it a thousand times and a smile of satisfaction spreads across her face, knowing that she gets to be a part of this project. East Senior and NHS Secretary Eve Beiting is excited about this year’s unique NHS service project: a solar array, which will make Lakota East the first public high school in Southwestern Ohio to be partially powered by solar energy. “This project is doing a service for the community as a whole as well as servicing the environment,” Beiting said. “This project is going to benefit the entire school and have a positive impact on the environment.” The five NHS officers decided in the summer that their annual service project would be
environmentally-focused with the tag name “Earth to East.” It wasn’t until the Fall that they decided to pursue a solar array and named the project #NHSolar. NHS advisor and East Spanish teacher Maria Maine was surprised when the idea of the solar was initially came up at a planning meeting. “[My co-advisor and I] thought it was a very ambitious project, but that it would have a really big impact,” Maine said. Maine has been an NHS adviser for two years, working alongside East English teacher Andy Alexander. This is the first year NHS has undertaken a project like this. “It’s a very large scale project compared to previous years,” Maine said. “In today’s society the environment is an issue that has come to the forefront and we wanted to make an impact in any way we could.” President and founder of TMI Energy
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Solutions Mark Gillespie, who is currently among the many local companies developing a design for the array, believes utilizing green energy alternatives such as solar panels present schools with a number of benefits. “There are multiple reasons why a school would utilize solar energy,” Gillespie told Spark. “One of the most important reasons is to reduce fossil use and enter into the renewable market. Sometimes you can even save money by using solar over the long term.” The 104 NHS members will pitch in to this year-long project by planning fundraisers and volunteering at events. On Dec. 13, NHS hosted a “Solar Shootout” in which students bet on which faculty members they predicted could make the most baskets in 30 seconds during the Colerain v. East basketball game. In the week leading up to the event, students put money into labeled jars of faculty members and students donated money