Students from elementary to high school are lining up to fill their water bottles with healthy, refreshing filtered water from three new water bottle filling stations that were recently installed on the first and second floors of the main school building. The purchase of the new filling stations was made possible by a grant from the AtlantiCare Healthy Schools, Healthy Children program combined with a gift from an anonymous donor.

ACS facilities staff member Bill Smallwood finished installing the filling stations on January 25, which also have a regular water fountain in the front.  One filling station is located near the elementary bathrooms and the rear bus entrance of the school building. The 4th graders pictured above filling up their water bottles during lunch are, from left, Isabelle Kiefer, Joey Kinch, and Brennan Meyer. On the second floor, 7th graders Kalee Tardif (left) and Zion Dawkins (right) used the filling station near the Music Room, (pictured below right), while 11th graders Cruz Lewis, left, and Jake DeNick, right, filled up at the new station near the high school stairwell (pictured below left).

“We are very grateful for the support from AtlantiCare and a generous donor that made the purchase of these filling stations possible,” said Chief School Administrator Karen Oblen. “We now have water filling stations at every location in the school building, replacing all of our basic water fountains. We know this helps provide a healthy learning environment for our students and staff.”  Oblen also said studies have shown that water bottle filling stations encourage everyone to drink more water and also have a positive impact on the environment, reducing the usage of disposable plastic water bottles.

ACS installed its first water bottle filling station in the 1st floor Multi-Purpose Room in the spring of 2018. It was purchased with a grant from the AtlantiCare Healthy Schools, Healthy Children program. That filling station has now been used to fill close to 103,000 water bottles.