Sol Donates Lighting System to Tornado Victims

Solar Outdoor Lighting (Sol Inc.) recently donated a solar-powered sign lighting to the town of Chapman, Kan. Sol’s donation supports Kansas State University’s project to rebuild Chapman following a devastating tornado in 2008. The efforts to rebuild the town were featured on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on Jan. 25.

“After receiving a request from a group of volunteers from the University of Kansas, we felt compelled to assist the team’s efforts in rebuilding the community," said Michael Sonnenfeldt, chairman of Sol Inc. "The lights were initially requested for a landscaping element but the students felt the lights were more useful illuminating the entrance to the town of Chapman. We are providing an environmentally friendly lighting system to a community devastated by a recent tornado, which will assist in their rebuilding efforts.”

Tim Sherman, a Kansas State University Graduate student who initiated the project, added: “The 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' in Chapman gave us the opportunity to help this community in need. We felt the best way to give back to the community was to not only design and build a useful and interesting element for the community but also to use the opportunity to demonstrate the importance of sustainable design. We used recycled materials and renewable energy in our project in order to minimize the amount of embodied energy and Sol is a company that made an important aspect of this project possible through their lighting system that runs completely on solar power.”

Sol also has donated powered lighting systems to the city of Port St. Lucie, Fla., communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina; and the 2007 earthquake victims in Peru.