SUBMITTED BY ADDY BUFFINGTON, 8^TH GRADE STUDENT AT BMS AND MEMBER OF H20 FOR BRIDGEPORT TEAM

 

Have you ever heard of a water bottle fill up station?

 

They are a cleaner, faster way to fill your reusable water bottles, reducing plastic waste in the process.

 

Mrs.Cunningham’s 6th period class at Bridgeport Middle School is hoping to use these stations to benefit our community.

 

“We (Mrs.Cunningham’s 6^th period) are working diligently to create a new opportunity for cleaner, more accessible water,” Jay Fazalare said while working with his class to organize this project, which includes distributing surveys in order to receive community input. They call themselves “H2O for Bridgeport.”

 

Their initial goal is installation of these stations at the Bridgeport High School Track and Field, and local city parks to replace existing water fountains. Their ultimate goal: create less plastic pollution, accessibility to free, clean water, and to promote water consumption.  

 

One of the places throughout the city that they are hoping to implement the stations includes the Bridgeport High School Track and Field.

 

Co-head chair of the project, Stella Rubi says, “A lot of people use the track and field both for school sports and recreation. I think that these will be used a lot at this location.” In order to prioritize the parks that will receive the first water fill-up stations the class plans to survey community needs.

 

They took a walk during their 6^th period class to the BHS field and the Bridgeport City Park, and more recently took a trip to the Bridge Sports complex and CityNet Center to map out the exact locations for the fill-up stations. After visiting the BHS turf they are still undecided as to where the best location would be.  Next, they examined needs of the City Park. 

 

The park is home to two full-sized multipurpose fields, two baseball/softball fields, and a 0.6 mile long track. This means that people are getting just as much exercise here as anywhere else, and what do you need when you work up a sweat? Water to stay hydrated!

 

But, carrying a disposable plastic water bottle will end up being the wrong choice for our environment.  Instead of letting your plastic bottle sit in a trash can, take a few seconds to fill your reusable bottle with filtered, chilled, and refreshing water with the click of a button. The class plans to replace the two existing fountains at the park with a water bottle fill station that includes a regular fountain and pet fountain.  Replacing the water fountains already there makes the entire project more feasible financially.

 

The students plan to propose replacement of four existing fountains near the baseball diamonds at the Bridge Sports Complex, and the addition of a new fountain near the bathrooms between the t-ball, c-ball, and soccer fields.

 

Droo Callahan, general manager of the Bridge Sports Complex and CityNet Center, responded to students’ interest by inviting them to get a better idea of the most beneficial water-fill station placement.  They discussed what the plan would be if they could replace the water fountains at the baseball diamonds, and he also suggested adding them in to the blueprints for the future turf fields behind the Center. 

 

Other places the scholars think would benefit from the fountains would be Compton Park, and Hinkle and Deegan Lake Park.

The class is also putting out a survey to the community to identify the top three places they’d like to see stations installed if the entirety of funding for all proposed locations is not met.  They will prioritize these locations based on community preference.  (The survey can be access on the Connect-Bridgeport website).

 

A question you might have is, “Where did this idea come from?” Colton Reed says, “It all started around Earth Day, with a science unit about plastic waste and clean water.” 

 

Mrs. Cunningham had a bellringer asking if they preferred plastic or reusable water bottles. The class vote was 17-2 for reusable water bottles, but the ones that said plastic chose this because they said they do not like refilling their water bottles in the fountains during practices at all the various locations because of germs.   

 

Reed continued on to say that when the class started brainstorming, they just kept going and became much more eager to take this project to the next level. They started with dividing and conquering, organizing themselves into groups, and they are each dedicated to a part of the project. They chose to select co-head chairs, Stella Rubi and Jay Fazalare, to lead the project and then decided on subgroups for community outreach, funding, and engineering.  

 

Stella created a PowerPoint and asked to present to Community Board members Dr. (Hank) Murray and Mr.(Jon) Griffith with their ideas and how they planned on achieving their goal. After the presentation, the students asked for feedback and the gentlemen were extremely supportive. This meeting sparked the excitement of all of the students and the project only further grew.

 

Altogether, the work that these kids have put in is for the betterment of our wonderful, progressive community.   If they implement these water bottle fill up stations, it will not only reduce plastic waste by encouraging reusable water bottles, but they hope it will inspire people to make a true change.

 

Seeing kids of this age making an impact should prove to many people that anyone can make a change, in many different ways. Their goal is to create awareness that water should be free, clean, and accessible to all.  They are hopeful to make passion project this into a reality.  

 

It’s simple, they love their community and saw a way to make a change; a cleaner, healthier, and all-together a better place.

 

You can follow their progress on their instagram account @h2o4bridgeport and they are presenting their idea to Bridgeport City Council on Monday.

 

Editor's Note: Submitted photos