Our friend and colleague, Adam Thada, up in Plymouth, Indiana sent us a photo yesterday of their latest “walk.” I’m talking about the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ and their Center at Donaldson campus. They’ve done so much, in fact, more that just about any institution I know to live by their words. See our blog piece celebrating their phase 2 solar a little while back. The photos show a 10kW wind turbine and a 10kW solar array at the Moontree Studios, where they’ve added a level 2 EV charging station. Moontree is on the edge of the (once) Great Kankakee Marsh (aka the Everglades of the North, which was drained by “progress” over a century ago). They’re also restoring a portion of that. As greenwashing and half measures increasingly frustrate us, it’s good to know that some folks find a way to show their true values by their gestures and not their idle talk. As Greta Thunberg recently said of such greenwash talk, it’s “bla bla bla.” Thirty years of bla bla bla…

A fine group of provincial and lay people work together in making one of the finest and most inspiring examples of what can and should be done with vision, leadership, commitment and some understanding of risk. Sister Mary Baird is at the center of the story but by no means alone, with a great group of folks there! Sister Mary’s “village wiring” diagram is a work of art… have a look.

POSTSCRIPT: Literally seconds after clicking the publish button, we had an email from Adam captioned “Phase 3” and even better, he said options were open to do something more “out of the box” and experimental! St. Francis of Assisi was purported to have said “preach always, sometimes use words.”