4/1/2008 10:56:00 AM Sauk goes green That’s Otte’s Join Hands
HERALD PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Moe Otte holds an energy-efficient light bulb, a sample of bulbs that will be distributed around Sauk Centre on May 3, during a Join Hands Day project.
By Carol Moorman and Bryan Zollman
Exchanging a 60-watt light bulb for an energy saver bulb can save a person $23.03 over 10 years.
Imagine what changing five or 10 light bulbs in one house can do?
Sauk Centre residents can find out.
It is the goal of Marlene "Moe" Otte that on May 3, Join Hands Day, every household in Sauk Centre will receive one energy-efficient light bulb, during a "Sauk Centre Goes Green" project. She sent out letters to various organizations with hopes of mobilizing efforts to get this done.
The evening of Monday, March 24, Sauk Centre residents met to gain information on the Join Hands Day project. Otte explained this is a national volunteer day that targets and develops relationships between young people and adults through neighborhood volunteering.
Another meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m., on Monday, April 7, at the Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union in Sauk Centre. Anyone interested is encouraged to attend.
Why energy-efficient?
The five highest-use fixtures in a home are typically the kitchen ceiling lights, the living or family room table and floor lamps, and outdoor porch or post lamp.
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, the country would save enough energy to light more than three million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars, according to information from www.energystar.gov.
ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices.
ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. You can save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb's lifetime. It produces about 75 percent less heat, so they're safer to operate and cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
Organizations,
volunteers needed
Join Hands Day is for everyone, Otte said. This is Otte's fourth Join Hands Day project, the first in Freeport four years ago, dealing with the Lake Wobegon Trail.
For the Sauk Centre project she is hoping to get organizations, youth groups and interested individuals to help out, whether in the form of monetary donations or volunteering to distributed light bulbs from 9 to 11 a.m. on May 3, followed by a picnic lunch.
"I want this to be a community effort to have Sauk Centre go green," Otte concluded.
For more information call Otte at 320-352-3812, 320-761-4193 or email moe@mainstreetcom.com.
