Project Porchlight Blog

Growing up in Ventnor, a coastal town just south of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Eric Somershoe always felt a connection to the ocean. So much so that he dropped out of college to serve in the Coast Guard. “I just wanted to be out in the water,” he says. “The Guard fulfilled that for me at the time.”

In the Coast Guard, Eric worked as a quartermaster, often spending five or six days a week along the coastline of Maine. The winters were rough, but Eric’s Coast Guard experience was invaluable. “The service got me refocused in a new direction,” he says.

“When I was stationed in Maine, I saw some beautiful, pristine clear water, where you could see water 60 feet down. Growing up in New Jersey, you can’t see five feet let alone two feet,” he says. “A light bulb went on, and then I knew I wanted to go back to school and do something for the environment.”

After earning his college degree in political science, Eric met a girl from Brigantine, New Jersey, who eventually became his wife, Rachel. They lived in Philadelphia for a while before settling in coastal South Jersey two years ago. Now 38, Eric holds a seasonal position with the New Jersey Forest Service, and in his spare time, he volunteers as a Youth Group Leader for the Crossroads Youth Group (CYG).

The CYG is a non-denominational community service organization affiliated with Community Presbyterian Church of Brigantine. On November 8, Eric led a group of 35 CYG middle school students as they volunteered for Project Porchlight’s Brigantine Blitz, helping to educate Brigantine residents about energy efficiency and the energy savings offered by compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs.

A total of 500 CFL bulbs were distributed at the Brigantine Blitz, part of Project Porchlight New Jersey’s campaign to distribute energy-efficient light bulbs to residents across the state. Project Porchlight is an initiative of One Change, and the campaign is made possible thanks to funding by the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program (NJCEP).

Volunteering for Project Porchlight was a valuable experience for the CYG kids. “The kids I was walking around with were so excited about giving away something that was good for the environment and lowering everybody’s carbon imprint,” says Eric. “I talked with the kids after we had the Blitz, and they felt like they did something good that day.

“Porchlight is a great idea,” continues Eric. “We all need to make huge changes because global warming is not going away. The kids I work with say to me, ‘We need change,’ and they want to be the ones that lead us into the next generation. They want to make a change for the greater good of their community, and their country and the world.”

Project Porchlight empowers people to believe that simple actions matter and to make smart choices that protect the environment. After all, when it comes to protecting our environment, simple actions matter. Even something as simple as changing a light bulb is important.

“It’s kind of like throwing the pebble into the lake--the ripple effect just grows and grows,” says Eric. “One little thing leads to the kids wanting to do other stuff for the environment. Since we did that distribution with Project Porchlight, they’ve been asking me, ‘What are we going to do next?’

“You put something like this in their minds at a young age,” he adds, “and who knows what they’re going to do when they grow up?”