“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

On Monday, August 21, the DIS-TRAN Packaged Team put on ISO certified solar eclipse glasses and looked up at the sun. A tent was set up on our company’s west lawn. We gave out solar eclipse glasses, RC Colas, and Moon Pies to celebrate.

DIS-TRAN looked at the rare solar event as a team building opportunity, and now, afterward, an opportunity to give back. Our communications and events coordinator, Tamie Fingleton, went to a lot of effort to weed through all of the counterfeit solar eclipse glasses for sale online and find safe, ISO certified glasses for our team. But with the eclipse over and another total eclipse viewing experience not on North America’s calendar until 2024… What do we do with those hundreds of eclipse glasses that we purchased? Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) asks that we donate.

The organization’s corporate partners are collecting used eclipse glasses to send to South American and Asian schools, where the next solar eclipse will take place on July 2, 2019.  The goal is to build on children’s eclipse interest and inspire them to pursue fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

DIS-TRAN teamed up with one of its local schools, Phoenix Magnet Elementary’s third-grade class, to make its donation. The class also viewed the eclipse on Monday and now are collecting used glasses to give to AWB.

“The students absolutely loved viewing the eclipse. So they really want to make sure others have that same experience,” says Phoenix’s third-grade teacher, Dr. Ramona Melder. “They are now on a mission to collect as many eclipse glasses as possible.”

DIS-TRAN gave all of its glasses to Phoenix’s third-grade class to add to its donation. “I suppose we could have hung on to the glasses and reused them in seven years, but that’s just not how we do things here at DIS-TRAN,” says Lindsey Morone, DIS-TRAN’s marketing manager. “My kids are 22 months and 3 months-old right now. I am so excited for them to see the eclipse in seven years. So I am extremely happy that DIS-TRAN is helping others have this same, amazing experience, on a global level.”

Photo Credit: Alan Mobley, DIS-TRAN Packaged Substations' Commercial Manager - Taken in Cerulean, KY