B1 hallway receives environmentally friendly addition

Junior Kennedy Helberg will now have a new way to fill up her water bottle, due to the installation of the first water bottle filling station in the B1 hallway Dec. 4.

This installation occurred as a part of a Roots and Shoots initiative to encourage students to bring reusable bottles from home, in order to decrease waste from disposable plastic bottles.

Helberg said the new station is a great convenience.

“It’s awesome. It makes it way easier to fill up water bottles,” Helberg said.

Roots and Shoots co-leader Anders Conroy said he believes that the student body has displayed a positive response to the filling station so far.
“Everybody has talked about how cool it is and how much better it is,” Conroy said. “It has been super successful, and kids keep asking when more will be put in.”
In order to fund the installation of more filling stations, Roots and Shoots is holding a fundraiser in third hour classes. Each class received a can in which students are encouraged to place donations. The class that raises the most money will be rewarded with a pizza party. The fundraiser ends Dec. 12.
Conroy said he thinks the student reaction to the filling station suggests that the fundraiser will be effective.
“I think (the fundraiser) will be very successful, because of the positive feedback of the first filling station,” Conroy said.

This first filling station was funded by the district, and will serve as a trial run to gauge student response and assess whether or not to install more stations.

Roots and Shoots adviser Jeremy Riehle said installation of other stations will depend on the reaction to this first station.
“We want to see what impact this station will have, and if students will use it. If that’s true, the idea is to put in one or two more,” Riehle said.
Not all students are in favor of the new filling station. Freshman Grant Smith said he thinks the upgrade is useless.
“Nobody needs to fill up their water bottle with a fancy filler,” Smith said. “They can just use the regular water fountain.”

The filling station was temporarily removed for maintenance Wednesday morning, but is expected to be up by Wednesday afternoon, according to district plumber Tom Morris.

The station has a screen which displays the approximate number of disposable water bottles that have been saved as a result of it. The count is currently more than 200 bottles*, and continues to rise.