Copyright Boulder Daily Camera
As its members look to the future, Bethlehem Lutheran Church is going green. For the past few years, the church at 1000 15th Ave. in Longmont has been finding ways to be more environmentally friendly. These include adding a pollinator garden that requires less water and letting Boulder County nonprofit Growing Gardens harvest produce on the property. As the growing season ends, a new project at the church begins: the installation of 164 solar panels. The panels were laid on the church’s roof over the past couple of weeks. The congregation raised over $70,000 to support the project, which has a price tag of around $200,000, according to church property chair Glenn Summers. Additional funding came from a Boulder County grant and expected government rebates. “I couldn’t be more proud of our congregation and the support that they’ve given,” Summers said. Dave Hooley, chair of the solar team, explained that the solar panels on his own home in Louisville inspired him to bring that technology to his church. For Hooley, the inclusion of solar panels will make the building more suitable for the generations ahead. “We want to prep ourselves for the future,” Hooley said. “It is also the right thing to be doing as far as stewardship of what we have.” Bethlehem Lutheran Church was established in 1901 and will celebrate its 125th anniversary next year. The church’s pastor, Katie Chullino, said there are around 130 people at a typical Sunday service. It’s not only Bethlehem Lutheran members who will benefit from the new panels, either. The building hosts a preschool program and Scout troop meetings. “There are people here pretty much all day, every day,” Chullino said. This year, the Growing Gardens farm at the church celebrated its fourth season of bringing fresh vegetables to county residents. At nearly an acre, the site is the second Growing Gardens farm location in Longmont. The other is hosted by the Longmont YMCA at 950 Lashley St. The path that led to a thriving farm at Bethlehem Lutheran Church began when the Lashley Street farm lost acreage due to expanding YMCA programs. Another location for Longmont’s Growing Gardens farm was needed, and Bethlehem Lutheran stepped up to provide it. Tim Villard, Food Project manager at Growing Gardens, remembered feeling “super thrilled” to get the news that the church was interested in becoming a farm site. “I really wanted to make up that space,” said Villard, who shared that some volunteer farmers are members of the Bethlehem Lutheran congregation. “This is a beautiful relationship. Once we started digging and growing here, (we found out) the soil is really great.” Last week, Growing Gardens held the last harvest day of the year at the Bethlehem Lutheran farm. Volunteers collected a few heads of lettuce that had persisted through the fall weather. Other crops this year included peppers, squash, green beans and tomatoes. According to Villa, the two Longmont community farm locations together produced over 13,000 pounds of vegetables this year. “This year was a really big year,” Villa said.
