Unite to Light Brightens Up the Night for Charity

Sparkles, glitter, and artistic, multicolored light displays illuminated the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop on Friday to make Unite to Light’s Glow Gala shine. Bright twinkling lights cut through the dark of the night like stars, alluding to the night’s cause: to raise money for solar lights and chargers for people in need. 

Stories of those Unite to Light helped shine just as brightly as the night’s creative light arrangements. A Ukrainian teacher used the lights to help students read in the dark of a bomb shelter; the Girl Up Initiative of Uganda partnered with Unite to Light to provide solar lights to the girls in the program who formerly had to study by candlelight; and an unhoused woman in Los Angeles used the solar phone charger to be able to call her medical care providers. 

Unite to Light’s newest project in Sierra Leone involves working with the World Food Program to open up a “light library” where students can check out lights as they would books. The lights last five to 10 years and have been shown to increase graduation rates by 21 percent. 

The nonprofit began at UC Santa Barbara, when a visiting professor from Ghana shared that half of his students couldn’t read at night because they did not have reliable access to power. 

Attendees could experience the power of bringing light into a dark space, and contemplate how often we use light and power in our daily lives, in geodesic domes titled “Cathedral 2” and “Cathedral 3,” by artist Cevins McCullah. One of the domes housed a small bench and a book, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. If participants snagged a “Luke Light” on the way in, they could imagine what it might be like to read without electricity. 

“It can be hard for us to imagine what it’s like to live without electricity, but if we can use art to experience energy, light, and power in different ways, we can kind of get a glimpse into different realities,” said CEO Megan Birney Rudert. 

The other dome spotlighted what else one can accomplish when granted even a meager amount of light: Small nature scenes of primary-colored, beachside sunsets on 3D wooden canvases, painted by local unhoused artist Mark D’Angelo, were lit up by the organization’s Luke Lights. McCullah said the larger conversation around the piece was about “how we have neighbors right here in Santa Barbara that are living without electricity.”

Twinkling unicorn horns and cat ears adorned attendees’ heads as they perused the interactive and playful light displays and projections after taking part in an auction to fund the dispersal of those lights and chargers to people in need. In addition to raising thousands through auction items including paintings, prints, “Pickleball in Paradise,” and a trip to Boulder, Colorado, generous donors raised their paddles to contribute $250-$5,000 to the cause outright.

The Gala was the first night in a two-night bash to celebrate and raise money for Unite to Light’s efforts.

Since 2011, Unite to Light has delivered 225,000 solar lights to people in 80 countries. To learn more or donate, visit: unitetolight.org/donate.