2023                                       Calendar for Durham Rotary
S e p t e m b e r						1	2
	3	4	5 No Meeting	6	7	8	9
	10	11	12 DHF Planning at the Durham Community Park (Glenn Pulliam)	13	14	15	16 DHF Setup at the Durham Community Park (Glenn Pulliam)
	17 Harvest Festival at Durham Community Park	18	19 No Meeting	20	21	22	23
	24	25	26 Meeting TBD (Steve Heithecker)	27	28	29	20
O c t o b e r	1	2	3 No Meeting	4	5	6	7
	8	9	10 Meeting TBD (Eric Hoiland)	11	12	13	14
	15	16	17 No Meeting	18	19	20	21
	22	23	24 Meeting TBD (Mike Wacker)	25	26	27	28
	29	30	31 No Meeting

 

The Meeting Opening   This was our Harvest Festival Planning meeting at the Durham Park.  President Glenn Pulliam opened the meeting and led the pledge.  He asked asked Jim Patterson to present an invocation.  Jim mentioned the death of Eric Hoiland’s father and Dave Jessen’s wife Sue Jessen in his prayer.  President Glenn then asked Larry Bradley to lead us in song.  He led us in singing “America”.   We then had Beer Brats that Jen Liu had prepared followed by a wonderful chocolate cake that Diane Selland had brought.

FUTURE MEETINGS: Meetings will be at the location noted, at 6:00 pm.

September 17th:  Harvest Festival at the Durham Park.   September 26th:  Steve Heithecker at BCCC   October 10th.  Eric Hoiland will present the program at  BCCC   October 24th:  Mike Wacker at BCCC   November 7th:  Tipsey Tuesday (Glenn & Eric)   November 14th:  Jen Liu

 

 

Announcements

 

None tonight.

Recognitions

None tonight.

 

Next Meeting

The next meeting, which will be next Sunday, September 17^th will be the Harvest Festival.  We need all members present by 6:00 am.

Prior to that we will meet at the storage shed in Durham on Saturday, September 16^th at 8:30 am.  After loading up all members are to proceed to the Durham Park to begin set up.

The next regular meeting will be September 26^th at the BCCC.  Steve Heithecker will be in charge, but it will be a review of the Harvest Festival.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member.  Think of business owners or managers to bring.  Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

Tonight’s Meeting Program

 

Tonight’s Program was about:

 

The Durham Rotary Club Proudly Presents...
44th Annual
Durham Harvest Festival

Sunday, September 17, 2023
In the beautiful tree-covered grassy Durham Community Park, Durham-Dayton Highway

Car Show & Shine    Arts and Craft Fair
and
 Pancake  Breakfast,   BBQ,   Live Music,  Antique Farm Equipment Show,    Lots of Kids Activities

     Members of the Durham Rotary Club are very excited that the 2023 Durham Harvest Festival will be bigger and better than ever. Funds raised from the event go back into the Durham Community for scholarships and local projects.  

     We anticipate that Festival highlights will be similar to last year.  From 7 to 11 a.m. the popular pancake breakfast will be  cooked and served by Rotary members. Then at 11 a.m. lunch starts with hot dogs, tri tip sandwich, and beverages.

     At 9 a.m. the Arts and Crafts Fair will begin, with artisans selling their wares until 4 p.m.  We expect around 40 participants this year with many talented artisans returning year after year.  Arts and Craft Fair application.

     The unique Car Show & Shine is a feast for the eyes with its display of antique cars, trucks, custom cars and muscle cars.  Because of space limitations, the car show will be limited to 200 cars.  There will be no pre-registration.  A $20 entrance fee will be collected onsite.  The car show begins at 9 a.m.  For participants, the tree covered park is great for for settling in with your friends in a group setting. The Festival is a great family event with activities for all ages.

     The restored tractors and engines are a very popular part of the day’s events.  As in the past, the engines will be restored and operating.  

     Other feature this year will include MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT by Chico Community Concert Band.

     Durham Rotary invites any Durham Organizations who would like to participate in the festival to contact them.  If you have a possible activity to raise funds for your group, Rotary would like to hear from you to discuss how you can participate.  Contact Larry Bradley at (530) 864-0795 or email lbsalmonds@gmail.com. 

The Program

The program tonight was President Glenn reviewing the following Harvest Festival Setup schedule, with additions by Larry Bradley and comments and suggestions by members.

 

________________________________________________________________

From District 5160 Governor

uBlock Origin blocked the downloading of information the District Governor’s Newsletter referred to, so I have nothing here.  She does list the following calendar dates:

Spring Assembly – South: March 23

Spring Assembly – North: April 6

Field of Rotary Dreams 2023-24 District Conference, Sacramento: April 26-28

__________________________________________________________________________________

From Rotary International

 

A solar energy divide

 

 

Rotary and Habitat bring rooftop solar to low-income homeowners

By Amy Hoak

The Habitat for Humanity home that Amber Cox moved into in 2020 not only provided a new, comfortable living situation for her and her son — it also helped keep the family's energy bills low.

That's because their duplex in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley came with a perk: rooftop solar panels, installed shortly after she moved in. The technology produces enough energy to greatly reduce her electric bill and create wiggle room in her budget. "It pretty much covers what would be my electric bill about three quarters of the year," Cox says.

Even in the wintertime, when the heat is running and sunlight is less abundant, she saves about $40 a month. This, in turn, makes it easier for her to spend on activities for her 9-year-old son, like registration fees for the swim team or a weekend trip to the zoo. Among residents of affordable housing, she's one of the fortunate few with solar power.

While the cost of solar panels has plummeted, the technology has not reached everyone equally. Low-income families, which stand to benefit the most from the savings, are among those with the least access to renewable energy. Barriers include high upfront costs, difficulty accessing loans, and disqualification for tax credits.

 

 

Workers install solar panels on the roof of a Habitat for Humanity home in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Courtesy of Southern Energy Management

By the numbers

1.    $25,000+

Potential savings over the life of a solar system

2.    3,000

Tree plantings needed to equal the benefits of one solar rooftop

3.    $110,000

Median household income of solar adopters in the U.S.

Environmental justice advocates in the U.S. have pointed to the disparity as an example of how people of color, who often endure more pollution in their neighborhoods, higher rates of asthma, and some of the greatest impacts of climate change, are also shut off from climate solutions. The civil rights group NAACP is among those pressing for greater access to solar power in communities with large percentages of Black or Hispanic residents.

Through their service partnership, Rotary International and Habitat for Humanity International are trying to shrink that solar equity gap, an effort that can have a lasting impact on families and communities. Habitat is a global nonprofit that improves living conditions in more than 70 countries, including by removing hurdles to affordable, adequate housing for families.

"There's such a thing as energy poverty," explains Liz Henke, of the Rotary Club of East Chapel Hill, North Carolina. "The energy bill is such a high percentage of disposable income for low-income people. If you can help decrease that power bill, you can help interrupt that cycle of poverty. It means families can afford shoes, buy better quality food, and all that goes back into the economy."

Since 2020, Henke's club has helped the local Habitat affiliate raise more than $330,000 for solar panels. She recruited a student intern who helped solicit the donation of 100 solar panels from Strata Clean Energy in Durham, North Carolina.

As a member of the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group's Renewable Energy Task Force, Henke also helped produce a guidebook, with support from Habitat and Rotary, to advise other clubs in the U.S. how to make solar a reality for low-income homeowners in their locations. The ESRAG guide educates readers on the basics: Rooftop solar uses photovoltaic panels to convert sun rays to electricity, cutting the expense of drawing power from a utility. And power companies pay homeowners for energy that isn't used and is fed back into the grid, which can further offset monthly electric bills. The installation of a 5.4-kilowatt solar system can save a homeowner $50 to $150 a month in electricity costs. The guidebook also covers practical topics including tax credits and rebates, grants, fundraising, and donations of equipment, labor, and expertise.

Homes built by Habitat for Humanity with rooftop solar panels in Orange County, North Carolina.

Toby Savage

Because of the high upfront investment, Habitat affiliates have had to navigate a patchwork of funding sources, which tend to shift and fluctuate over time, says Beth Wade, director of land acquisition and project development for Habitat of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The partnership with Rotary could help, she says. "This [partnership] has the potential to stabilize funding because it may provide a new group and a new pool that we can go to when there aren't state funds," Wade says. "We live right in liberal Massachusetts, progressive Massachusetts. And even here, the funding ebbs and flows."

Already, there are Rotary/Habitat solar projects being pursued in places including upstate New York, Delaware, Minnesota, Virginia, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, Ontario, and Côte d'Ivoire, Henke says.

"It used to be, if you're going to put solar on a house, you really needed to be a tree-hugger, you needed to be willing to actually pay a premium for energy that was zero carbon," says John E.P. Morrison, executive director of NC Clean Future, an initiative that promotes clean energy, air, and water and land preservation in North Carolina. Today, once the system is in place, maintenance costs are minimal and the electricity is almost free — as long as you can pay for the system upfront, he adds.

The full cost of residential rooftop solar, including installation, dropped 64 percent between 2010 and 2022, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the Department of Energy. But many tax breaks helping bring down costs favor higher earners. Homeowners with lower incomes often don't pay enough in taxes to benefit from the rebates.

But a law approved last year allows non-taxpaying entities to get the same 30 percent rebate on solar installations as taxpayers, Henke says, so organizations like Habitat can direct the savings to the homeowners. It's a way to begin to bring equity to solar energy.

"We're significantly reducing the energy burden of these families. We're contributing to the generational wealth of these families," says Jeff Heie, director of GiveSolar, a nonprofit organization that helps other nonprofits and homeowners with lower incomes gain access to solar energy. Homeowners can save an estimated $25,000 over the life of a solar system, he says.

Heie and others hope that putting solar on Habitat homes could have a ripple effect on the homebuilding industry, with more developers equipping homes with the technology. The Habitat project shows that if it can be done for low-income homeowners, anyone can do it, he says.

 

Volunteers lift a solar panel during installation at a Habitat home in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Courtesy of GiveSolar

To reap the full benefits of solar power, it's best to plan for an installation when the home is built. Homes need to be oriented for direct sunlight, and in the Northern Hemisphere the roof plane should face southward for maximum exposure. Building the homes with the proper electrical infrastructure is also helpful. "Most houses don't have electrical wires running up to the roof," Morrison says. "It's much easier to put that wiring in when the house is being built, as opposed to try to retrofit it later."

An expansion of rooftop solar is also an important path to meeting climate goals. The impact of one 5.4-kilowatt rooftop solar system is the equivalent of planting 3,000 trees or not driving about 300,000 miles, according to the ESRAG guidebook. "Rotary members, for the environment, like to plant trees. If we plant 50 trees on a Saturday morning, we've worked really hard," Henke says. "If you put up solar panels, that's the equivalent of planting thousands of trees that do not need to be tended, watered, or mulched."

Amber Cox is encouraged that more people are getting access to solar energy. "Once upon a time, the only people that could afford solar maybe didn't have the same amount of need that we do," Cox says. "We've come so far with solar. It does make for a hopeful future."

This story originally appeared in the September 2023 issue of Rotary magazine.