Portland Artist Wins ‘Shine, Baby, Shine!’ Video Contest with Entry That Looks at Earth from Sun’s Point of View

A Portland, Ore., artist who believes a playful, friendly tone makes environmental messages go farther won SolarWorld’s "Shine, baby, shine!” video contest – and the grand prize of a high-performance Sunkits® solar electric system on her home – with a musical stop-motion animation titled "The Sun Wants to Do More.”

Cheryl Lohrmann, grand-prize winner of a Sunkits solar electric system in SolarWorld's "Shine, baby, shine!" video contest, holds up a company "Sun at Work" sign in front of her house in northeast Portland. Lohrmann submitted an animated video that imagines the Earth's use of solar energy from the sun's perspective. (Photo: Fred Joe)

SolarWorld launched the Internet-based contest in the wake of last summer’s launch of its "Shine, baby, shine!” advertising campaign, featuring Larry Hagman. The former star of the long-running TV shows "Dallas” and "I Dream of Jeannie” owns one of the nation’s largest home solar electric systems. The contest challenged participants to produce a video of no more than 60 seconds to explain why they want to go solar and to feature the slogan, "Shine, baby, shine!”

Cheryl Lohrmann submitted her video (www.solarworld-usa.com/shine/contestwinner) based on a thought experiment: If the sun could observe and think, what would it make of how little the human race uses the sun’s energy today?

"We actively engage with the sun to grow our food and enjoy ourselves,” said Lohrmann, 34. "But that’s all we really use the sun for. It’s like, ‘This is nice, but I’d like to do more with my life.’”

Lohrmann, an artist who founded the nonprofit Create Plenty (www.createplenty.org), said her video reflects her belief that an inviting brand of humor makes environmental messages easier to accept. "I like to get serious messages across in a playful way,” she said. "I think people respond to that better.”

Lohrmann submitted her entry just 10 minutes before the noon deadline on New Year’s Eve. She had wanted to end the year by completing a creative project, and the contest provided a good excuse. But she didn’t get a chance to start until after Christmas. Moreover, working on her kitchen chopping block, she invested about 15 hours of intensive work using paper punch holes in painstaking stop-motion animation, which she combined with narration and music by a friend.

Next came the campaign to round up Internet votes. Using email and social media, she networked with friends, family and contacts in environmental, educational and film circles; she even approached Portland Mayor Sam Adams. By the voting deadline, she ended up on top.

LiveLight Energy, a Portland solar-installation firm, will install the Sunkits prize. The system is expected to chop down the electric bill of Lohrmann’s home, which she shares with a brother and a roommate.

But just as importantly, she said, "Now I can be a more active advocate of solar, because I have it.”

About SolarWorld (www.SolarWorld.com): The SolarWorld AG Group (ISIN: DE0005108401) is a worldwide leader in offering brand-name, high-quality, crystalline solar-power technology. Its strength is its fully integrated solar production. From silicon as the raw material through wafers, cells and modules all the way to turn-key solar systems of all sizes, the group combines all stages of the solar value chain. The central business activity is selling quality modules into the installation and distribution trades and crystalline wafers to the international solar cell industry. Group headquarters are located in Bonn, Germany. The group’s largest production facilities operate in Freiberg, Germany and Hillsboro in the U.S. State of Oregon. Sustainability is the basis of the group strategy. Under the name Solar2World, the group supports care projects using off-grid solar-power solutions in developing countries, exemplifying sustainable economic development. Worldwide, SolarWorld employs about 3,300 people. SolarWorld AG has been quoted on the stock exchange since 1999 and today is listed on, among others, the TecDAX, ÖkoDAX, Dow Jones STOXX 600 as well as in the sustainability index NAI.

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