Immaculate Conception Catholic Church has activated new solar panels recently installed on the church roof. The upgrade enabled the church to become Louisiana’s 20th “community lighthouse,” a refuge where parishioners and neighbors in the Scotlandville community can count on continuous, reliable power the next time there’s a hurricane or a prolonged outage.

On Monday, the church celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“It gives us a place to gather, a place of safety, a place where we can recharge not just our phones, but our souls,” said Bishop Michael Duca of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

The Community Lighthouse initiative is led by Together Louisiana and its local chapter, Together Baton Rouge. The nonprofit group, led by faith-based and civic groups, organized the initiative after the protracted power outages in the New Orleans area in the wake of 2021’s Hurricane Ida.

On Monday, the church was using its new solar array and accompanying battery storage capacity to combat the oppressive September heat outside. There was also some heat indoors as well when Southern University’s Human Jukebox got the crowd of more than 200 dancing a second line. The band and the second line ended up outdoors to cap off the ceremony.

Speaking in the church’s activity center, pastor Tom Clark said lack of power has stymied the church in the past. He recalled many days without power in 2008 in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

“Here at Immaculate Conception, we had lots of plans of how we were going to be of assistance to our neighbors,” the Rev. Clark recalled, “but we were paralyzed because we had no power. We didn’t even have working phones.”

Eight years later, during the August 2016 floods, the church found itself in the opposite position, with power.

“When a lot of the city flooded, we were dry because Scotlandville is the highest part of the city,” Clark said. “So we could spring into action and set up this hall as a distribution center for cleaning supplies and food. And from here we could send out volunteers.”

In addition to the new energy infrastructure, 12 members of the Immaculate Conception congregation have received training in how to become “lighthouse keepers.”

“We always had a lot of volunteers, but this helped us to organize the volunteers, divide up responsibilities, give a lot more form and shape to it all,” Clark said. “So it was a good exercise for us.”

The church formally recognized its new lighthouse keepers Monday in a “vesting” ceremony, where they donned special weather-proof vests designating their new roles.

Several community and political leaders spoke at Monday’s ceremony, including John Pierre, the chancellor of nearby Southern University, which has had recurring on-campus power outages over the past couple of weeks.

Pierre said the Baton Rouge community and Scotlandville were in “shambles” in 2016 after the flood but also the upheaval in the wake of the shooting of Alton Sterling. He said projects like the community lighthouse at Immaculate Conception show progress made in the past decade.

“It shows people what can be done when people collaborate and come together,” Pierre said.

Anthony Kenney, the Metro Council member for District 2, showed up not just with a speech but with a $1,000 oversized check as a reward for the church.

“My due diligence is to show the money is where my mouth is,” Kenney said.

Then he challenged Mayor-President Sid Edwards, scheduled to speak next, to match his gift.

“I shouldn’t be cursing in church, but he brought a damn check!” Edwards said with mock indignation.

Edwards then said he would write the church a $1,001 check. That sparked rounds of one-upsmanship by the remaining elected leaders who spoke next. It ended with state Sen. Regina Barrow pulling Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis and others on stage and pledging to find $5,000 more to give to the church.