The following is a press release for the 2019 Energy night:
The Energy Industry & Community Members Gathers to Support STEM Education
[SCRANTON, PA] – On Thursday, July 18, 2019, energy industry employees, advocates, legislators, and supporters attended the 4th Annual “Energy Night” baseball game at PNC Field to watch the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre RailRiders play the Columbus Clippers. A portion of all proceeds went towards the Energy Education Fund to benefit STEM education across Pennsylvania.
As an evening dedicated to bringing together the community and the energy industry, Energy Night is meant to celebrate affordable, reliable, and locally produced natural gas that fuels much of the region and gives attendees the chance to socialize with colleagues and industry professionals in a relaxed atmosphere. Growing from a small group of local energy company employees and their families as a way to enjoy a night out, Energy Night has now grown into a large-scale event entertaining over 1,000 attendees for its fourth year.
Due to changing workforce demographics, there will be significant opportunities for younger workers within the energy industry — hundreds of thousands of whom are projected to fill 1.9 million new job opportunities by 2035 as almost 40 percent of the worker base gets ready to retire.
The Energy Education Fund helps bring the Mobile Oilfield Learning Unit (MOLU), a traveling exhibition that teaches students about STEM topics related to the oil and natural gas industry, to schools across Pennsylvania. While walking through the MOLU, students learn about geology, engineering, physics, chemistry, history, environmental studies, and more.
The Energy Education Fund is administered by the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains. All donations are tax-deductible.
“The Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains is happy to manage the Energy Education Fund and help facilitate the distribution of the donations to provide unique and engaging educational programs to students across the Commonwealth,” says Cristine Clayton, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains.
The MOLU’s six mobile units are comprised of four stations each, making 24 educational activities available for students. Students travel around in pairs, spending a few minutes at each station learning, filling out accompanying worksheets, and exploring the hands-on materials – like a robotic arm and a microscope. Each session is around 90 minutes long, with pre- and post- visit materials provided.
George Stark, Director, External Affairs at Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation said “As the energy industry continues to transform itself in a time of widespread technological innovation, we need to make sure the next generation of employees has the imagination and skills necessary to thrive in a world of new challenges and opportunities. The Energy Education Fund will help to bring these opportunities to students across Pennsylvania so that the next generation will be ready to step into well-paying jobs in the industry.”
Along with the MOLU, the Energy Education Fund offers STEM Teacher Workshops to schools across Pennsylvania, free of cost.
With the help of our industry supporters, the Energy Education Fund will offer unique and engaging educational programs to students, and the teachers that support them, to grow the new wave of workers across Pennsylvania.
For more information about the Energy Education Fund, visit www.energyeducationfund.com
About the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains
The Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains is an independent, non-profit financial institution that manages funds that benefit charities by protecting the investment, achieving growth, and providing a perpetual source of income. We assist donors, both individuals and organizations, with long-range planning of their support for charities in the Endless Mountains.
For more information, visit www.community-foundation.org
