EDWARDSVILLE - The snow/sleet did not stop Anthony Evans and 20 volunteers from assembling at Metro East Humane Society this weekend to complete a project long in the works.
The volunteer effort was part of an Eagle Scout project for Evans, age 17, a senior at Edwardsville High School and a Life Scout with Boy Scouts of America, Troop 216.
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For over 100 years, BSA has placed a high priority on community service. Evans' project started as a plan to install solar panels on the building to make MEHS less reliant on the electrical grid, but after a fair amount of research, he realized the project would be far too costly and make a small impact on the total power consumption.
After much consideration, the project was modified to encompass the replacement of a majority of the building’s lighting with higher efficiency LEDs. The initial phase of this undertaking commenced early in 2018 when Evans solicited bids from local vendors, selected products, and then began fundraising. In total, 34 fluorescent fixtures were replaced with LED style fixtures, 48 fluorescent bulbs were replaced with LED lamps, and 7 exit lights were replaced with LED technology, also adding needed emergency egress lighting.
A fair portion of donations was secured from a “Go Fund Me” page, but a bulk of the funding came from a few generous donors; Edwardsville Rotary Club, several local Lodges of Illinois Freemasons, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 309 provided much of the funding needed for the project. In total, Evans raised over $3,800 for the needed materials.
At 7 a.m. on Saturday, January 19, volunteers arrived to begin the work. Bill Hagney, a retired professional electrician from IBEW Local 309, helped to organize a labor pool of volunteer electricians working under the auspices of “The Electric Pros” (electricpros.com).
Anthony says of these generous men, “They took a project that I expected to take a couple of days to complete and finished it by 12:30 on the first day. They really made my job a lot less stressful.”
Other volunteers included family, fellow Scouts, and adult Scout leaders. David Balai, a maintenance electrician at SIUE housing (pictured), spent the morning volunteering his time as well.
When asked why he braved the nasty forecast to work on Saturday, he said he was glad to ‘take care of those serving our community’. Both in his volunteer work and professional role, Balai is passionate about seeing end users move towards more ‘eco-friendly’ solutions.
MEHS is a NO-KILL, non-profit rescue animal shelter in Edwardsville, IL serving a 5 county area in Southern Illinois.
Info submitted by John Evans
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