Auburn Librarians Bringing Light to Kenya

By Victoria Calarco, Genesee Elementary Librarian & Anne Mlod, Retired Librarian

This is a story of perseverance, passion, and dedication…as well as multiple people and organizations coming together to make a difference in the world.

The story starts back in June of 2019 - at the time, our school year had just ended. Victoria was librarian at Auburn High School, and Anne was librarian at Genesee Elementary School.  We were on our way to ISTE, a national conference on all things related to technology in education. At the conference, we learned about an organization called Engineering Brightness, a non-profit dedicated to empowering students to create 3D-printed solar-powered lanterns, delivered to areas of the world experiencing a lack of safe lighting - which we were shocked to learn included over one billion people!

Both of us are passionate about making STEM relevant to students, encouraging more girls to take an interest in STEM, and empowering our students to make a difference in the world. This project was the perfect fit! We met with the co-founder of Engineering Brightness, Tracey Winey, who helped us come up with a budget of $5,000 to cover bringing her and her co-founder to Auburn to facilitate the project, and all of the supplies needed to create one hundred 3-D printed solar-powered lanterns, which her organization would deliver to a community in Liberia.  Our plan was to partner Anne’s elementary students with Victoria’s high school students for the two-day lantern build, followed by an open house for the community to see the results and learn more about solar energy and light poverty.

Fast forward to January 2020. We had secured grants for the project from multiple businesses and organizations in the community. Tracey and her colleague John from Engineering Brightness were scheduled to come to Auburn in May to facilitate the project, and our students had been learning about light poverty and solar energy concepts. Herman Ave Art Educator and International Club Advisor Jessica Rice joined forces with us and planned to help with the project implementation.

And then the pandemic arrived and put our project on hold. When we were ready to resume it in the spring of 2021, Engineering Brightness was no longer available to come to Auburn. Anne retired and moved to Florida, Jessica’s family moved to Arkansas, and Victoria decided to transfer from the High School Library to Genesee Elementary School.

In July of 2022, Anne and Victoria attended the International Association of School Librarianship Conference in Columbia, SC. There, they met Margaret Muthiga, a librarian from Njoro, Kenya who made the comment that her students could not do homework or read at night due to a lack of safe lighting in their homes. A (solar) lightbulb went off in Anne and Victoria’s heads and the project was re-kindled. Genesee students learned about Kenya, solar energy, and light poverty around the world, and Victoria held a family program at Booker T. Washington Center at which families created their own backyard solar lantern. Jessica held workshops in Arkansas where attendees did the same. Anne worked with students in a community after-school program in Florida at which they created laminated bookmarks for Margaret’s students. The project grew bigger when the “Z” Club at Auburn High School held a pancake breakfast to raise money for feminine hygiene products for Margaret’s students, a need she said keeps her students from attending school. The Auburn Rotary Club donated $345 for new books for the students in Njoro.

On June 23rd, Victoria, Anne, Jessica and her husband Michael, and Victoria’s sister Christina, also an Auburn School District teacher, will be flying to Cairo, Egypt for three days, followed by a flight to Nairobi, Kenya to deliver 150 solar-powered desk lamps, feminine hygiene products, and money to purchase $3,000 worth of books. They will spend time with Margaret, visiting schools and meeting with her students and their families. They will end their trip with three days in Amsterdam before flying home on July 9th. If you want to follow them on their trip, you can read their blog: http://bit.ly/kenyasolar. 

This project was made possible by Auburn Education Foundation, Auburn Rotary Club, Auburn School District, Marcia Finch, GOS, NUCOR, NYSCATE, Reuse Refuge, Xylem, and AHS Z-Club.