Ribera Community Cultural Center is now Solar Powered!

Ribera Community Cultural Center is now Solar Powered!
Please join Cornerstones and the Community Center to Celebrate!
Cornerstones Community Partnerships, through the generosity of an existing donor, has created a Solar Initiative directed to installing and maintaining solar energy on tribal lands and extending into economically challenged northern New Mexico villages. In February 2018, Cornerstones, in partnership with Remy’s Good Day Fund, granted the Ribera Community Cultural Center in Ribera, NM funds to install 14 solar panels to provide the hot water supply for radiant heat throughout the building. The installation was completed on September 10, 2018.

On October 24, 2018 at 10AM, Cornerstones will present the Community Cultural Center with a poster explaining the new solar thermal system.

In 1998, the Los Pueblos Community Council envisioned re-purposing the Old Ribera School into a much-needed community center for gatherings, art exhibits and classes and other community-focused activities with the intent of enriching the lives of those living in San Miguel county. From 2000 to 2010, fundraising efforts brought in grants and private donations that covered the cost of demolishing portions of the old school and Phase 1 construction of the new community center. Phase 2 construction began in 2012 and, with continued grants, the community center completed interior and exterior projects. In 2017 a commercial kitchen was installed, an important step to realizing self-sufficiency. The community center is now available for parties, meetings, weddings, funerals and other community events.
Gloria Luz Gonzales, Director, Los Pueblos Community Council, has been instrumental in the entire 10-year project to re-purpose the Old Ribera School into a community center. When funding for solar panels was offered by Cornerstones during the reconstruction process, she realized the potential of it to save money that could be used to support projects at the center. She also saw it as a teaching moment. “With Cornerstones input”, she says, “we decided to turn the installation of the solar panels into an educational opportunity for the community at large, to raise awareness about solar energy”.

Cornerstones is pleased to be a vital part of the Ribera Community Cultural Center’s success. Maureen Vosburgh, Development Director, says “We are fully dedicated to our new slogan, ‘Partnering with Communities for a Sustainable Future’, and plan to invest $250,000 in solar projects by the end of 2019”. The implementation of solar at the Ribera Community Cultural Center is a great example of this commitment.
Vital to Cornerstones’ effort is the training of youth, the unemployed and the underemployed, health benefits, and cost savings for individuals as well as their communities. All the preceding adds to the preservation of buildings and culture with a 21st century thrust.