Sigma Chi Fraternity at Fresno State has completed the installation of a solar system that will serve our chapter house for the next 30 years. The system includes 135 panels mounted on a solar structure that will also serve as shaded parking. Included underneath the structure is additional security lighting.
The system will produce a maximum output of 42 kilowatts per hours and was sized to offset 97% of the chapter house’s $17,700 electrical cost each year. The cost savings will be used by the Sigma Chi House Corporation to provide amenities and maintenance that will help give our undergraduate brothers the highest quality fraternity experience. The solar system was donated by Fresno State Sigma Chi alumni.
In case you forgot, the fraternity has 244 active chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more that 300,000 members. It was founded on June 28, 1855, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Sigma Chi began at Fresno State in 1952 when a local fraternity, Sigma Tau, affiliated with Sigma Chi. These statistics should put the next sentence into perspective.
As far as Headquarters knows, the Sigma Chi chapter house at Fresno State is the first “Sig House” to have a solar system sized to provide all of its electrical use.
The official dedication will be held on Saturday, August 4, at 11:00 AM. It will be held at the chapter house at 1456 E. Bulldog Lane, and lunch via a taco truck will be served between noon and 2:00 PM. All EX undergraduates and alumni are invited, and there is no charge for lunch. This will be a Brothers-only event.
The solar system will be dedicated to Steve Heinrichs (65-F) who entered the Chapter Eternal on September 4, 2016. Steve served as quaestor and consul while he was an undergraduate at Epsilon Eta, and after graduation he served briefly as Grand Quaestor and was Assistant Executive Secretary from 1969 to 1971. Through the years he also served on several boards at Sigma Chi Headquarters. His many achievements as a brother of Sigma Chi and outside the fraternity have been acknowledged by his earning awards such as Order of Constantine (1988), CSUF Top Dog Craig School of Business (2008), Significant Sig (2010), and the CSUF Foundation Award (2014).
Steve was one of only three Sigs from Epsilon Eta to be honored as both Significant Sig and Order of Constantine. The other two were Phil Sanchez and Tony Flores. He was one of only 44 to be awarded the CSUF Foundation Award since the award was started in 1949. Other Sigs that have received the Foundation Award were Bud Richter (1979), Jim Mayer (1982), and Rodger Jensen (1989).
PLEASE RSVP TO BRAD FISCHER AT BSF937@AOL.COM