Are you thirsty? Have a water bottle that needs filling up? But don’t you just hate it when you have a water bottle and the standard drinking fountains don’t fill it up completely because the water spills over? Well, don’t fret anymore because now there is a specialized water fountain here in Skyline that works just for that.
Meet the Hydration Station, the new water fountain that is built exclusively to fill up a reusable water bottle to the very top (Reusable water bottle not included). The hydration station is the new baby of Skyline’s Environmental Club and is currently only found in Building Six, in the aisle leading to the Bookstore.
“You just walk up with a reusable bottle, stick it under the spout and the sensor will [recognize it] and fill the bottle,” said Deanna Badong, the Environmental Club’s new president. So don’t stick your mouth under the spout because it won’t recognize it and release the water. There is a conventional water fountain attached to it. “It’s more desirable than a classic water fountain because you can’t really fill up the bottle,” she continued.
The hydration station is only found in Building Six, but when asked if it could added to the rest of Skyline, Badong said “If students use them, efficiently, then we’ll bring it to the rest of the campus.”
“Right now just to test it out to see how students react to it,” said Badong.
Who came up with this idea? “Amber Lincoln,” said Badong. “It was her initial idea, in order to fulfill the club’s goal to bring a culture of sustainability to Skyline.” Amber Lincoln was the club’s former president.
“Amber Lincoln applied for grant program that Jennifer Mair runs,” continued Badong, “the money came from that and from some of the club’s funds.”
The hope is that the hydration station will help the club in its ongoing mission to make Skyline College a more environmentally friendly place, and it starts by trying to reduce the use of plastic bottles, one bottle at a time.
“There is a counter that counts how many plastic water bottles have been diverted,” Badong said.
“We want to reduce the amount of waste produced by Skyline and help bring awareness about issues of global warming and overall waste production.”
The Environmental Club is proud of the new fountain, but it is also extremely thankful of the pet project’s upbringing.
“Anjana Richards, Sabrina Lawrence-Gomez, Carina Anttila-Suarez all had a really big part in this project,” Badong said, “So a big thank you to them.”
