Next door to our hometown of Bozeman is Belgrade, Montana, population 8,185. Hugging the tracks of the old Northern Pacific, Belgrade once served as a destination for grain trucks ready to disgorge their loads. In the last 20 years, many of the the surrounding fields have turned into suburbs, but the town of Belgrade still retains stubborn vestiges of its agricultural heritage. It's hard not to like a town where the high rises are grain elevators and the bars have names like The Mint and The Hub.

Today we read that some students at the Belgrade High School are competing for a Brighter Planet project grant to install a 1 kW solar PV system on the south-facing roof of the science wing of their school. Their proposal says they want to show everyone and anyone that with determination, a little elbow grease and support, high school students can make a difference for their community and their planet. They asked us to go to brighterplanet.com, sign up, and vote for their project before May 15. As of this posting, little ol' Belgrade is running second, but with a few more votes, they just might make it.

They have our vote. It's pretty cool to see this kind of leadership coming from young people in our sister town.