Members of the Appropriate Technology Center and Collective install a vertical wall solar collector on a house in November 1980. The organization operated in Lawrence from 1979 to 1989, promoting self-reliance in energy, food and health. A reunion for those involved in the group is planned for Sunday at the South Park Recreation Center.

A shared vision of protecting the earth through energy conservation originally united them, and a desire to revitalize interest in those ideals is reuniting them.

On Sunday, those involved with Lawrence’s Appropriate Technology Center and Collective are having a reunion to celebrate and remember the group’s accomplishments.

“I was sitting with two friends at the Lied Center, and we just decided after 28 years it was just time to do it,” said Lawrence resident Dan Bentley, one of the center’s founding members.

The center, which was founded in 1979 and operated until 1989, promoted self-reliance in food, health and energy through a variety of projects and initiatives.

“We were trying to present alternatives to the way things were going,” Bentley said. “Maybe we didn’t change things that much, but we tried.”

The center originally occupied two rooms at 1101 1/2 Mass. and included a 1,000-book resource library. The center was completely staffed and run by volunteer members and the community. Many of the center’s projects were funded by city grants.

“It’s truly amazing that we could do this with only volunteers,” Bentley said. “We were involved in some heavy duty projects.”

Those projects included the Neighborhood Solar Project and Project Save Energy Around Lawrence, or SEAL.

The Neighborhood Solar Project installed demonstration solar energy devices, such as greenhouses, vertical wall collectors and a daylighted porch, on and at the homes of people who applied for them.

Through Project SEAL, a weatherization and conservation project, the center organized workshops to teach members of the community how to apply energy-saving techniques to their homes. Kits were distributed to low-income participants that included all the materials necessary to implement the techniques.

In addition to taking an active role in environmental issues, the collective’s members said they enjoyed a meaningful social network of people joined by common ideals.

Katherine Greene, automation and acquisitions librarian at the Kansas University School of Law Wheat Library and former collective member, said she fondly remembers listening to and taking part in heated intellectual discussions in the center’s reading room.

“It was just amazing, the ideas and energy in the room, and how community-minded everyone was,” Greene said.

In 1985, the center lost the library and reading room because of rising rent. After that, members’ priorities and responsibilities began to shift, and participation declined.

Bentley said most of the organization’s members stayed active in environmental and conservation issues. He said throughout the duration of the center, there were 20 to 30 consistently active members, and he anticipates that though not all remain in Lawrence, they will return for the reunion.

Kelly Kindscher, a plant ecologist at the Kansas Biological Survey and former member, said he plans to be there.

“It was an important part of Lawrence history,” Kindscher said. “The center operated during a positive time to take action in service to the local community, and we were a very important part of that.”

The reunion will take place Sunday at the South Park Recreation Center, 1141 Mass., and will include an audio-visual show highlighting the organization’s projects and accomplishments at 3:30 p.m. followed by a potluck dinner at 6 p.m.