Students in the CSU Energy Club and Student Sustainability Center recently volunteered to help GRID Alternatives and Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association develop a 2-megawatt solar array at Coyote Ridge in south Fort Collins.
More than 2,500 Poudre School District students will begin their school year with wide smiles and new supplies thanks to School is Cool.
School is Cool, started at CSU 23 years ago, provided backpacks and grade-specific supplies to 2,511 students. More than 110 volunteers spent four days organizing materials, stuffing backpacks and delivering them to PSD schools.
This year 42 PSD schools will receive backpacks, including every middle school and high school. The program has distributed nearly 35,000 backpacks since it was launched by CSU employees in 1992.
Corporate, campus supportThe School is Cool committee has partnered with the CSU Bookstore, the Bohemian Foundation, Hewlett-Packard and other organizations to expand its reach. Still, the majority of funding over the past 23 years has come from CSU employees.
Committed to community“We are lucky and proud to call Fort Collins our home, and as a university committed to providing access to education, 
School is Cool is an amazing opportunity for CSU to help children in our community get the tools they need to succeed,” said Tom Milligan, CSU’s vice president for external relations. “The CSU community truly believes in education, and through this wonderful program, our staff, faculty and students get to demonstrate that belief in a way that makes a real difference in the lives of school children in our hometown. We are very proud of this great program and thank the hundreds of individuals and the sponsors who make it possible.”
To support School is Cool, send your gift to: School is Cool, Colorado State University Foundation, 9100 Campus Delivery or donate online.