Energize Delaware grants $25K to Delaware Ag Museum
Cape Gazette, March 6, 2022
Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village check presentation attendees shown are (l-r) Tony DePrima, executive director from Energize Delaware; Andrew Slater, DESEU board member; and Delaware Agriculture Museum representatives Executive Director Carolyn Claypoole, board President Grier Stayton, and trustees Franny West and Samantha Steele.
Energize Delaware recently awarded $25,000 to the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village in Dover for an upcoming rural electrification exhibit.
"The Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village is thrilled to have Energize Delaware as a sponsor of our exciting new exhibit. Scheduled to open in late spring, this exhibit will educate and inform visitors of all ages of the monumental impacts rural electrification had, and continues to have, on Delaware agriculture and on the lives of people in Delaware’s rural communities,” said Carolyn Claypoole, Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village executive director.
The large-scale permanent exhibit, Then One Day the Lights Came On, shows the impact of rural electrification on Delaware and the Delmarva Peninsula. Exploring the time before electricity improved life on the farm, in homes, towns and businesses across Delmarva, it not only reveals the past, but looks forward to how alternative energy is shaping the future of rural Delaware.
“When we heard about the upcoming exhibit at the museum and how it aligned with our mission, we knew we had to help make it happen,” said Tony DePrima, executive director of Energize Delaware.
A fan of the Delaware Agricultural Museum, Drew Slater, the public advocate and an Energize Delaware board member, has family roots deep into Delaware’s farming community. “This grant adds to the wonderful history of Delaware’s largest industry and provides context to the role electricity played in our past and in our future. As Energize Delaware supports solar farm loans, we help defray the cost of electricity while providing renewable energy to farmers. The role electricity has played is an important missing link, and I’m delighted the board has agreed to fund this permanent exhibit at the Delaware Agricultural Museum,” said Slater.
