Project Porchlight Blog

The Jewel of the North will be shining brighter as Slave Lake attendees embrace our energy-efficiency campaign to light up the town. Fourteen volunteers signed up to help get over 1,800 bulbs distributed to their neighbours in Slave Lake. Many others enthusiastically endorsed the benefits of making the switch from incandescent bulbs to more efficient compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Many others said they've either begun or have completed the transition to CFL bulbs.

It was great to be at the Slave Lake Spring Trade Show and learn why they call it the Jewel of the North. The people of Slave Lake are hospitable and engaging. Everyone is friendly and interested to get to know one another. This is a great community for a campaign like Project Porchlight. The campaign is all about neighbour meeting neighbour, talking about simple actions we can take to save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and make the planet a nicer place for our children and future generations. And that's exactly the thinking in Slave Lake. They have an impressive recycling program that rivals that of big city Calgary.

Many residents of Slave Lake expressed their interest in energy savings, electricity conservation, and environmental protection. There is awareness of the benefits of CFL bulbs and a desire to seek out recycling for the bulbs when they expire.

By all accounts this year's Slave Lake Spring Trade Show at the Arctic Ice Centre was the largest trade show in Slave Lake and well attended. The event organizers, George and Kathy Wright, thought of everything, both for exhibitors and the invited public. The event opened on schedule with every booth and all features set up, thanks to George and Kathy. Hospitality, of course, is their forte as operators of Lesser Slave Lake Regional Tourism. George was kind enough to store some bulbs for us after the trade show so that they will be available for volunteers over the next couple of weeks.

The residents of Slave Lake didn't disappoint us - fourteen volunteers signed on to distribute bulbs and the Porchlight message to their neighbours in the coming weeks. We'd like to thank Courtney Murphy from Fox FM for helping us spread the word about our campaign. Courtney has known about Project Porchlight since its inception, having interviewed Stuart Hickox about two years ago on QR77 radio in Alberta.