The Sun Day celebration in New Orleans on Saturday, September 20, was a dynamic combination of expert information, passionate encouragement, and excellent opportunities to meet others who share concerns about fossil fuels and enthusiasm for renewable energy sources. Around 100 attendees listened to two panel discussions, learned from the variety of education tables, and enjoyed free food and music by local musicians.
The first panel discussion was on “Resilience and Sustainability,” moderated by Anna Nguyen of the New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability. She and others from that office shared regarding their agency’s vision and actions.
The second panel session, “Moving Toward 100% Renewable Energy”, was moderated by Eloise Reid from the organization GreenFaith. The first presenter was Keely Lewis of the Institute for Utopian Hospitality, who shared details on building energy resilience in her presentation, “Power Your Life.” Sister Alicia Costa of the Sisters of the Holy Family spoke of recent and upcoming work in community solar for our city. Logan Burke, Alliance for Affordable Energy, rallied us with words of encouragement as she spoke of action toward having 100% renewable energy.
The Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition, organizer of the local event, thanks those who gave presentations, led music, and helped with other facets of this event. Thank you to our co-sponsors who helped to make this possible and to Broadmoor Community Church for providing a neighborly venue. A big shout-out to each person who attended Sun Day and was part of the energy and hope generated throughout the day.
We were part of the national Sun Day celebration, which was observed with almost 500 events across the United States. There was a creative array of activities, such as s’mores prepared with a solar oven, choreographed dances among solar panels on a college campus, neighbors inviting others from their towns to see how their heat pumps or solar inverters work and save money, and lots of children enjoying it all – learning while still young about the amazing power of the sun!
