You will hear about this again at the semiannual meeting on Sunday, June 22 (please mark your calendars) but I want to report briefly on one of our anniversary projects. We have been working together–council, property and grounds leaders, anniversary committee and others–to install solar panels on our building. This project has taken several years. After one funding source fell through, we turned to a Wayland group-buying program. A generous member of the congregation loaned us the money–at no interest–to buy and install the panels. We raised the money to put a new roof on the sanctuary prior to the installation of the panels. The plan had been to pay back the loan with savings on the electric bill.

In this our 50th anniversary year the council thought it would be fitting and possible to raise $50,000 from members and friends to repay the solar panel loan immediately. The campaign was successful. The solar panels have been up and working for more than a year. The loan was repaid last week.

The panels produce enough power to meet the electrical needs of our church. In addition to providing all the electricity for our building, solar credits accrue based on the energy the panels produce. When the credits are sold, we receive additional income. Earlier this year we received our first solar credit payment.

Thank you to the members of Peace who worked together on this project: to all of you who contributed so generously and quickly, to the congregation council for their solid wisdom and judgement, to the anniversary committee for their ideas and energy. Special thanks to Ron Riggert, Milly Engberg and Kathrin Midgley for their exceptional leadership on this project.