Alpha Fire Company Receives $10K Donation From Bloom Energy During ESPN Radio Tour Stop

ESPN Radio’s College Football Campus Tour made its first stop at Penn State, bringing a $10,000 donation from Bloom Energy to Alpha Fire Company ahead of Saturday’s Homecoming matchup between the Nittany Lions and Wisconsin. 

The donation was presented at Alpha Fire Company Friday morning as part of the tour’s State College stop. ESPN and Bloom Energy are visiting local fire departments along the tour and supporting emergency response organizations in each community. 

The Penn State stop is the third of eight planned tour stops this season and comes during Homecoming Week. ESPN Radio will broadcast Penn State’s game against Wisconsin nationally on Saturday. 

“This money allows us to put back towards equipment, towards vehicles, towards personnel, and kind of make sure they’re able to properly serve the Centre Region, so they’ll take that and they’ll determine where it’s best used and kind of just apply it as they go,” Alpha Fire Company Lt. Brittain Banull.

Alpha has operated as a volunteer fire company since 1899 and has more than 100 volunteers serving across three stations. 

The department protects and serves about 130,000 people and 104-square miles between State College Borough, College, Ferguson and Patton townships and Penn State’s University Park campus, responding to more than 1,300 calls annually. 

“We’re incredibly grateful. Any time that our community is able to support us, we’re grateful for that,” Banull said. “We love giving back to our community, and the Alpha Fire Company is really rooted in that for over 125 years. Being able to take these donations and reapply them to serve the Centre Region is a real honor.” 

The company receives operating and equipment funding through the Centre Region Council of Governments, Penn State, the Firemen’s Relief Association of State College and donations. 

“Support from organizations like Bloom Energy helps us continue investing in our people, our equipment, and our mission to serve,” Brian Bittner, Fire Chief of Alpha Fire Company, said. 

Banull said the donation also comes as Alpha prepares for the increased activity that accompanies Penn State football weekends. 

“So for us, football weekends are inherently much busier,” Banull said. “Our population increases by a lot, and so for us it’s exciting to see the town get busier…So having [Bloom Energy and ESPN] here in town is great. It’s great to see the interaction they have with the community, and them being able to come and support us as well is also amazing. Beyond that, the financial support of being able to use that to give back to the Centre Region is really important, and we’re truly appreciative of it.” 

ESPN Radio tour manager Lindsey Lowrie said the partnership with Bloom Energy added a community component to this year’s college football tour.

“Our partnership with Bloom Energy has been awesome,” Lowrie said. “It’s actually their first year on the tour that we’re doing this, and so when they came to us and sort of had a thought of going to different firehouses, we were really excited about that because we get to then give back to the local communities of everywhere that we go.”

Bloom Energy Chief Marketing Officer Natalie Sunderland said the company wanted to use the tour as a way to recognize first responders and emergency officials in the college town communities hosting ESPN Radio broadcasts. 

“We’re in the business of community resilience,” Sunderland said. “We saw an opportunity with ESPN to travel across the country and thank firefighters and first responders for the work that they do in community resilience. We have shared values, and so that’s what we were ultimately looking to accomplish.” 

Bloom Energy is a California-based energy technology company that develops on-site power systems for businesses and institutions. Its technology is used by companies, hospitals, manufacturers and college campuses to generate electricity at the site where it is needed. 

“I think it’s really an opportunity for us to bring the power conversation to college campuses across the country,” Katja Gagen, Bloom’s head of communications, said. “Our values [with ESPN and Alpha] are aligned. We’re showing up for communities every day, in addition to the college, to the hospitals, retailers, we also power college campuses. We power advanced manufacturing and a lot of the businesses, but we do this in a really clean and reliable way, and in a way that is community friendly.” 

The company has about 1,000 installations across the United States, including several in Pennsylvania. Sunderland said the company powers businesses including Urban Outfitters and Coherent Corp., and looks to expand in communities where it already has a presence.

“Honestly, we’re just so impressed with the fact that [Alpha Fire] has been around for over a century and all volunteers,” Gagen said. “We love that there’s students involved, and it’s just been really incredible to see. It’s just a perfect example of community…Their volunteers represent the very best of community service, and we are proud to support the firefighters and first responders whose dedication protects communities across the State College region.”

According to Lowrie, the tour, in its third  year, follows ESPN Radio’s weekly football schedule and focuses on major college football matchups. It continues to expand each football season 

“Our overall goal of the tour is to go to some of the biggest matchups,” Lowrie said. “We’re always typically at ranked schools, and then also just be in front of as many people as humanly possible. So the combo of the homecoming weekend and this being our first time in Penn State with the tour, we were super excited to come here. People have so much pride here, and it’s just a cool place to be on game day.” 

The State College stop will also continue Saturday with ESPN and Bloom Energy activities ahead of the Penn State-Wisconsin game, including a Fan Zone with an interactive power-themed game and giveaways beginning at 2 p.m. 

“Pennsylvania is a really important state for us, and we’re just really proud to be working here,”  Sunderland said. “We’re really happy to be getting to know Alpha Firehouse and looking to be doing a whole lot more in the community as well.”

Bloom’s 2026 partnership tour with ESPN, with SiriusXM, Monster Energy and Manscaped also participating as additional tour sponsors, previously stopped in College Station, Texas and Louisville, Kentucky. 

Remaining announced stops include Gainesville and Austin in October and Baton Rouge, Oxford and Lincoln in November, with donations going to emergency response organizations within those communities along the tour.

“I think I speak for all fire companies that they visit: We’re grateful for the support they’re able to provide,” Banull said. “For volunteer fire companies, it could be very, very difficult to fundraise, and we’re very fortunate here in the Centre Region to have support from our local government. There are fire companies that aren’t that fortunate out there, so you know, we recognize that, and we’re grateful that we were chosen to receive this and to be able to continue to support the Centre Region using it.”