Chem Club brings cleaner water to JHS

By Tim Forsberg
Posted 4/27/17

While the Greenville Avenue Big Dig takes place in town, students in Johnston High’s Chem Club have taken big steps to ensure their school offers a clean and environmentally-friendly water supply. …

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Chem Club brings cleaner water to JHS

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While the Greenville Avenue Big Dig takes place in town, students in Johnston High’s Chem Club have taken big steps to ensure their school offers a clean and environmentally-friendly water supply.

The Chem Club recently submitted a grant request to the Greenlove Foundation for the installation of a water bottle filling station in the school’s library. The station is touted as being environmentally-friendly as it may cut down on plastic water bottle usage, along with offering cleaner drinking water through the unit’s filtration system.

The student’s application for the device was approved, and on Monday their new system was unveiled for the school to use.

“It’s really safer because there’s no standards for bottled water, and there’s a cost there because only 23 percent of the plastic bottles get recycled, the rest ends up in the landfill or the waterways,” said teacher Stephen Pickin, who along with Jennifer Souza serves as advisor to the club. “We’ve used this as a teaching tool. Coincidentally, we did a water project this year for the science fair where the kids became aware of water resources and recycling.”

The device has an electronic counter, which records the amount of half-liter plastic water bottles saved by using the station. A motion sensor, designed to conserve water, activates a bottle-filling spout that will accept most drinking containers. There is also a standard hand-activated bubbler feature for quick sips.

Plumbing and electrical systems were already in place from a previous water fountain in the library, and installation of the new fixture took only a few hours. The library was chosen as the site for installation because of its central location within the school.

Katherine Bowers serves as president of the Greenlove Foundation, which was established in memory of her daughter, Kendra. Kendra grew up in Newport and was an environmental science student at the University of Vermont. She was a passionate environmentalist who lost her life in a skiing accident at the age of 19.

“She was known in our house as the ‘Green Police,’” she was always giving me a hard time about my plastic bottles, about letting the water run, or keeping the refrigerator open,” said Bowers. “She was serious about anything effecting the environment, and she was very forceful about it.”

Bowers wanted to take her daughter’s passion and energy for the environment and established Greenlove to continue Kendra’s legacy and make a difference in her honor. The Foundation seeks to foster an optimistic, positive and forward-thinking sense of environmental responsibility and sustainability awareness. 

According to Bowers, Kendra opposed the use of bottled water and carried a Nalgene water bottle with her everywhere. On a trip after her daughter’s death, Bowers noticed a water filling station at an airport. That station provided the idea to install the stations in educational institutions and recreational parks in combination with environmental educational programs.

“The kids wrote a beautiful, beautiful letter and we were very impressed with their passion and commitment,” said Bowers. “The letter that we received from the Chem Club was outstanding. It was so well written and beautiful, and we knew right away that they deserved to receive this.”

The club is selling Panthers water bottles to use at the fountain for $10. According to Mr. Picken, some of the proceeds from the sale of the bottles will go to benefit Charity: Water, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Other funds will be set aside for maintenance of the fountain, such as replacement of the machine’s filters.

Senior Nour Abaherah and Chem Club president said the effort was made possible by Nicholas Turcotte, who also serves as president, as well as Laura Wilson and Kristiana Parrillo. She said they gathered information about Johnston’s water supply and made their presentation.

“I think that’s why this came out so good, because we were all super excited to possibly get something, so it felt really good,” said Abaherah, who’ll graduate fifth in her class and plans to attend Rhode Island College.

Above the drinking station, the school has placed a plaque in memory of Kendra Bowers.

“Steve has been a relentless champion with this. This has been really important to him. He’s gotten all of the kids involved, and they have put their heart and soul into it; they think it’s really important,” said Principal Dennis Morrell. “Doing this in Kendra’s memory is helping us change our little corner of the world, especially in the town that we live in. We have the landfill, and I think it’s really important for us as Johnstonians to be very conscious of our environment.”

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