Sunny summer days will be a boon to Hamilton Middle School, which has three new solar panels through an ambitious undertaking by the school's Earth Club.
When the Hamilton Earth Club was formed five years ago, members started thinking about how they could make a difference, said Susan Armstrong Richard, the adviser. Club decided to raise money for solar panels.
"Some people tried to talk us out of it. They just had smaller projects in mind," she said. "The kids and I were determined to make a difference in a big way."
The club kept chipping away at the high cost by selling scented pencils called Smencils, designing and selling T-shirts, selling Christmas wreaths, hosting a school dance and running a bake sale during science night at adjacent Van Hise Elementary School. The club also benefited from BoxTops for Education collections at Hamilton and Van Hise. The school raised nearly $5,000 through its fundraising efforts and other donations and also received a $2,336 Focus on Energy Grant.
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The first club members were juniors at West High School when the panels were installed on the roof of the school's library this spring by the Sun Prairie branch of Faith Technologies.
"I'm glad that we were able to make a difference," said Dain Richard, 16, an original member. "I was pleased that we were actually able to accomplish a goal that we started."
Some current club members said they were pleased to have a part in helping the earth and the world.
"It's exciting because this has been going for so long. Finally we've actually done it," said eighth-grader Anastasia Knight, 14.
Recently, a monitor on a wall in the school's library was hooked up to the Internet so students can look at a website to see the number of watts of energy being produced by the solar panels, said Mike Keough, a school district electrician. Over time, students can see a history of how much the system has been producing and how it compares to other systems in the country, he said.
At maximum, the panels can produce 470 watts per hour, Keough said, enough energy to light up four 100-watt bulbs per hour.
