New lights at Naytahwaush Boxing Gym pack a punch

Those left jabs and right hooks may be landing a little cleaner due to a lighting upgrade at the Naytahwaush Boxing Gym in the White Earth Nation in Northwest Minnesota. 

The gym is used as a community wellness center and the training facility for the White Earth Nation Boxing Team. The approximately 500 square foot building had been repurposed multiple times since it was originally built in the 1970s as a sewing factory, but the lighting remained inadequate.   

The lighting retrofit included changing 87 fluorescent fixtures to LED fixtures, and then removing 348 old tube lights and replacing them with 174 LED bulbs.  

The 30+ boxers and community members who use the gym saw a difference right away notes Sommers, “They liked the new lights a lot better. It made the place a lot brighter.”

This lighting retrofit project took place during the tail-end of a pandemic and world-wide inflation that created a shortage of materials and available labor. “I learned to budget for change orders and to expect timelines to be adjusted,” says Sommers. “My advice would be to be patient.”

Though Sommers had to hang up his gloves as the boxing coach, it was for a good reason: his recent election to the White Earth Tribal Council.

Councilmember Sommers sees a bright future for continued clean energy efforts at White Earth. “We’re looking at a community center in Mahnomen, there may be a chance to do more energy work there.”