The TJ community introduces a filtered water bottle filler in hopes of encouraging students to drink more and stay green. photo by Mia Grijalva
Thomas Jefferson Leadership helped bring the first water fountain with a water bottle filter to the school.
At the beginning of the spring semester, TJ introduced a water fountain with a water bottle filtration system, which was paid for by leadership. The new fountain is located in the main hallway across from the elevator, and has been used over 2,000 times.
Senior Faith Whitfield, a student in Leadership class and one of the heads of the project, explained, “We saw these filters at all the other schools and we thought it would be a good addition to TJ.” The class came together and decided to invest in the water bottle filler system. Leadership helped fund the project with the money the class has raised through various fundraisers last year. The fountain cost $5,000, due to having to add electrical to make the fountain work in the area it was placed. Tom Conroy, TJ’s facility operations manager, was the head of installing the project and re-did the electrical by the elevator. The hope is that the fountain will help keep the school green, decreasing the amount of plastic bottles used and thrown away. Principal Michael Christoff said, “Hopefully it will encourage people to drink more water and save on the amount of waste.” The water bottle filter is another big push for the school to be green.
Christoff hopes to add two more fountains so they will be accessible on all floors of the school. He is working with PTO to get the funding for the additional fountains. The students were excited to incorporate the fountain into their daily lives when they arrived back to school after winter break, so this increase would greatly benefit the student body. Junior Laura Brandon said, “I was so excited to come back to school and see the fountain. I use it every day now.”
The students are getting involved with helping the school and their community stay green. They are excited about the new improvements the school is working to implement as well. The TJ community thanks the leadership class for helping to fund the project that made a big impact on student’s daily lives. They looks forward to utilizing this new addition and look forward to more in the future.
