West Virginia solar installer uses Cesar Chavez connection to promote community kindness

Having a positive impact on the communities in which its employees live and work has been a key pillar of Mountain View Solar’s mission since the very beginning. Now in its 15th year serving the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and surrounding area in the Appalachian Mountains, mtvSolar (No. 239 on the 2024 Top Solar Contractors List) has long offered customers the chance to participate in its “Community Give Back Program.” Every mtvSolar customer can pledge a solar panel to a nonprofit of their choosing; once enough donations are designated to a specific place, mtvSolar will install an array for free.

The company has also set aside time for employees to volunteer their services for non-solar-related activities that still have an impact in their community — the Humane Society of Morgan County and The Kids Clubs of Northern Shenandoah Valley are just a couple of the charities and nonprofits mtvSolar employees are passionate about. mtvSolar now has an official Day of Service to get out and volunteer, recognized on Cesar Chavez Day, a national commemorative holiday in honor of the civil rights and labor movement activist on his birthday, March 31.

Why is a West Virginia solar company taking a day to remember a former grape picker from Arizona and the founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union? It turns out, Cesar Chavez is mtvSolar founder Mike McKechnie’s birth father. A legacy McKechnie has struggled to balance his whole life, he now feels ready to celebrate his heritage and continue practicing the community kindness that has always been in his DNA.

McKechnie was born in California and adopted at two weeks old by family friends of his birth mother Cookie Goepel. His adoptive parents raised McKechnie on the East Coast, with a few stints in Europe, alongside three younger siblings. He grew up knowing he was adopted but didn’t learn of his birth parents until his teens. At the time, McKechnie was reading about Chavez in his Spanish class but didn’t know how to tell his classmates the news.

“As I grew up, I started thinking more about it. I wanted to get to know some of my Mexican family, but I didn’t think I could reach out to anybody,” McKechnie said. This was the 1970s and ’80s, and besides flying out to California and dropping into the UFW offices, McKechnie wasn’t sure how to connect with his roots.

In the early ’90s, McKechnie was able to meet Chavez, but from afar. Chavez was giving a talk at the University of Maryland to recruit college students for a new labor campaign. McKechnie sat in the auditorium and listened, watching Chavez command the room and recognizing certain mannerisms as his own. He didn’t speak to Chavez that day, and unfortunately Chavez died a few years later before McKechnie got the chance to reach out again.

Meanwhile, McKechnie was starting his life in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. He was first a home builder, working on custom houses. He became interested in solar and came to purchase a fully functional home with solar, designed by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth students participating in the 2007 Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. McKechnie relocated the home to Berkeley Springs, moved in his wife and children and began giving demonstration talks every weekend on how solar works in rural West Virginia. Eventually, McKechnie wanted to take his passion project full-time, and mtvSolar was born.

“It was a dream, and it still is and still going strong,” he said. “Now we have 50 people, and it’s just a good group of people.”

Along the way, McKechnie used teachings from his childhood to make a difference in the community — whether it was volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity project or developing workforce placements in the town of fewer than 800 residents.

“We always felt a sense of community growing up in our family,” he said. “We were always aware of different perspectives — living in Europe helped with that. We knew to not just take care of ourselves and not anybody else. We’ve been doing that along the way [with mtvSolar] by helping our employees first and then helping the community.”

While expressing kindness to your neighbor can be a learned trait, McKechnie has wondered if he was born with Chavez’s penchant for community action. He said he believes finding passion in the solar industry is what brought both his natured and nurtured talents together.

“I was building houses for years, beautiful houses, but it wasn’t enough. But then there was solar, and I got to do something that was going to help climate change, help people,” McKechnie said. “I found out I’m a good, natural spokesperson. I have this natural talent to get people to understand what I’m saying and follow our ideas. Solar is a good way to use this.

“I think I had it inside me, what Cesar did, if he could bring that many people together for something,” he added. “I think I needed the purpose [of solar] as the catalyst to unlock the potential that I have. I’m using some of that Cesar energy to promote solar.”

McKechnie has in recent years connected with the Chavez family and become more comfortable talking about his heritage. When discussing ways to expand employee volunteer efforts within mtvSolar, he thought it was time to honor Chavez on his birthday.

“We dreamt up the Day of Service and wear T-shirts with Cesar Chavez on them,” McKechnie said. “People are like, ‘Why?’ But then they start to see the similarity — that we’re giving back to our community and helping people who are less fortunate. That feels good for me to have a way to do that. I don’t know much about farm workers or labor unions. But I do know there’s people that need help everywhere. It’s been a wonderful thing, and we’re going to watch it grow every year.”

This story was featured exclusively in our 2024 Top Solar Contractors issue. See the issue and full list of top U.S. solar installers here.