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ANNUAL REPORT CONTACT SCI |
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SUNSPOTS — Summer Solstice 2009
Content
Message from the Board
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| Arline J. Lederman |
Next, in order to create and manage SCI programs and do all that is needed, a great new group has been hired to join with our experienced regulars. I never cease to admire at the exceptional professionalism of this staff. Each gives extraordinary energy and is working far below "pay grade" in order to contribute to the world. This next generation looks just great to me.
I work at the UN and with other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote SCI. We have recast our presentations to include, up front, the concept of an integrated household solar energy program. Cooking with the solar cooker, storing and "slow cooking" food in a "hay basket," and pasteurizing water with a testing kit for analysis, the solar cooker for heating, and a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) for accuracy is excellent. When you add safe water storage it does make for a complete and exceptional basic solar home. When we add a solar lantern as we are discussing it will be fabulous. This concept of the solar home makes my work at the UN and with its related organizations far easier to explain and promote. Refugee communities, poverty environments, resource-challenged users of wood, dung and coal as well as poor quality water — all will benefit greatly with such support. Health, environments and economies all can flourish with this solar support and I could not wish for a better outcome.
Now that SCI is actively exploring Voluntary Carbon Credits for increased revenue with Jonathan Greenberg and his firm Progressive Source Communications, we may be able to leap into a 21st century, modern form of e-based fund-raising to supplement our essential private contributions.
Volunteering with SCI these past years has offered me a superb opportunity to bring some of these efforts along. I feel as if I have a great opportunity to apply much of what I have learned, in a long and busy lifetime, to help in a wonderful cause. I could not wish for more fun. Come aboard and share the ride.
Arline J. Lederman
SCI Board of Directors
The Aurora
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| Joyce Jett and Sonia Heptonstall |
At the end of the month, 200 to 300 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) will be in Geneva to participate in a conference sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The event will allow representatives of NGOs to advocate for the missions of their organizations and directly exchange resource information, discuss collaborative opportunities and the challenges they encounter in developing programs.
Solar Cookers International (SCI) will participate in this event, the Annual UNHCR NGOs Consultations, which will include side meetings requested by NGOs. CARE International and the International Rescue Committee are two of the nine NGOs hosting side meetings. A side event was also requested by advocate Joyce Jett, who is the SCI liaison with UNHCR, and by advocate Sonia Heptonstall. The approved request will focus on Integrated Cooking and Safe Water. Joyce will moderate a discussion on this topic and present visual materials that reflect current program activities of SCI. Central to the presentation will be the field efforts of SCI staff in Africa, the Safe Water Project and the USEPA collaborative effort between Practical Action and SCI. One of the most positive elements of these program efforts is to see children now enjoying clean water stored in clay containers after being pasteurized with the solar cooker.
This will be the first such presentation by SCI before UNHCR and fellow NGOs.
What a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about SCI programs; and even more gratifying, to know that this event will draw attention to those who will benefit most from the simple technologies of solar cooking and water pasteurization.
We are most grateful for the participation of volunteers in so many areas of advocacy, whether at the UN or preparing exhibits and making presentations at local public awareness events. Congratulations to all of you for your efforts in keeping us better informed about the needs of others, here and abroad, and how we can make a difference.
Patrick Widner
SCI Executive Director
Solar Synergy
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| Don Coan tests solar cooking bags: used 34 times! |
Don Coan retired in 1988. Not wanting to spend his days playing golf or going fishing, Don looked around for a meaningful use of his time. He did some research and became an advocate for Solar Box Cookers International (SBCI), now called Solar Cookers International (SCI). Don has been advocating for SCI for over 20 years. The Encarta World English Dictionary defines advocate as to "recommend or support something; to speak in favor of something."
At that time, it was mentioned in the Christian Science Monitor that solar box cooker construction plans could be purchased from SCI for $1.00. (Updated, expanded versions of the plans are still available through the SCI Marketplace.) Don donated his time preparing the plans to be mailed, and even now he continues to voluntarily package solar cookers and related products to be shipped.
In the early days of solar cooking in Sacramento, solar box cookers where made from found cardboard. Don told me the best cardboard to use came from local bike shops. They saved the bike boxes and gave them to SCI to make into cookers. Don would not only lead construction workshops, he would find the cardboard!
To increase efficiency and consistency, Don worked with a team of people to make a full-scale Tyvek® pattern. This pattern provided consistency in the creation of the cookers. Though SCI no longer makes and sells cardboard box cookers, Don still has the patterns, and, like many of us, still uses the big box cookers regularly.
Don was there in the early 1990s when hundreds of solar cooks flooded the lawn of the California State Capitol. He even held a workshop so people could make their own cooker, right on the lawn of the capitol. Don also participated, with a number of other dedicated volunteers, in a solar cooking booth at the California State Fair for many summers. In front of thousands of people they solar cooked, answered questions, and advocated for solar cooking.
As an SCI representative, Don also participated in a Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) school program at numerous schools. SMUD employees educated grammar school children about alternative energy and conservation. On the last day, Don would introduce solar cooking to the students and the class would make some solar cookers. To this day, Don is approached by adults who, as children, made solar box cookers with Don. They may not still have or use the cooker, but they remember the experience.
Don has led workshops on making solar box cookers at the State Capitol, he has been on the SCI demonstration team and the Shine On planning committee, and he is here, in the office, every Friday doing whatever he can to spread solar cooking knowledge — just like he was doing 20 years ago.
Don has benefitted SCI in many ways, and his advocacy over the past two decades has made a world of difference!
Rene Hamlin
SCI Resource Development Coordinator
The Heliograph
SCI in the News
HowStuffWorks.com | March 2009
"How are solar cookers saving lives in Chad and Darfur?"
"How Solar Cooking Works"
CNN | April 2009
"Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven"
The Standard | April 2009
"Solar energy cookers catch on"