The Erin Water Rockers have set a goal of raising $5,000 by June 1 to contribute their half of the funds for water bottle refilling stations in Centre 2000 and the Hillsburgh Community Centre.
At its March 17 meeting town council agreed to contribute half the funds for two water bottle refilling stations if the Water Rockers could raise the rest.
To do so, the group set up a fundraising web page where anyone can make a donation.
“A lot of our family members have shared it on their social media and the website has been put in emails throughout the school,” said Water Rocker Maddie Swan.
The Water Rockers are also the Grade 6 class at Erin Public School and on March 27, they went to all businesses in downtown Erin to distribute bookmarks to inform the community about the fundraising campaign.
Having contact with local store owners isn’t new for the Water Rockers.
Group helper and Erin Grade 6 teacher Cathy Dykstra said approaching store owners is something her students do on a regular basis.
Once a month they head downtown to chat with the business community.
“The same kids go into the stores every month so they build up that rapport too, and that familiarity and they have to shake hands and make eye contact and say their script about ‘maybe consider doing this and this and this because that helps to save water in our community’,” Dykstra explained.
Though the current crowd funding campaign is a first for the Water Rockers, encouraging the installation of the water bottle refilling stations goes back to the program’s roots.
The Water Rockers formed after the school received its first water bottle refilling stations about two years ago. Dykstra said she and her daughters spend a lot of time in arenas while the girls play ringette and they took notice of the refilling stations in various facilities, taking photos and noting different manufacturers.
After doing a lot of research and finding the best option for the school atmosphere, Dykstra said she took her proposal asking for a water bottle refilling station in Erin PS to the Upper Grand District School Board and it received more support than she imagined.
“All 75 schools (in the board) were given one for free and they’re $3,100 each to install,” she explained.
The board also offered to subsidize the installation of additional units, so schools will have to pay only $1,000. Erin PS has three stations.
“I find it a lot easier because it doesn’t create the huge puddles on the ground,” Swan said. Sometimes with the regular fountain, Swan said, there would be puddles because bottles had to be tilted in order to be filled with water.
Dykstra said once the stations were installed she knew the group could start a reusable water bottle campaign in earnest.
A large part of the Water Rockers group is bringing awareness to refilling stations and the Blue W program where stores put a sticker in their window to show passersby that they can refill reusable bottles in the store for free. All of the main street businesses in Erin offer the service.
But the program also brings awareness to the younger generation of the value of water.
When asked for a memorable fact she had learned about water since being a Water Rocker, Swan said, “A lot of our clothes are made with a lot of water.” Dykstra expanded on that, saying it takes about 2,500 litres of water to make a T-shirt and about 7,600 litres to make a pair of blue jeans.
For Water Rocker Ava Belrose, it was the cost that was most interesting.
“Plastic water bottles, the water inside it only costs like 10 cents. It’s the actual bottle that takes up the money,” said Belrose.
For fellow Water Rocker James Glac, it was the amount of waste created by plastic water bottles that made an impression.
“Plastic water bottles are making more garbage so … It’s producing bad stuff,” he said.
Spencer Abbott, found the 3,000 litres of water it takes to make one sheet of paper most interesting.
Dykstra said the Water Rockers program is about, “Tying water conservation and water research into your daily programs, into your reading, into your writing, into your math, into your science, everything and making it so the kids can become aware and they can do something about it.”
The program has been picked up in Orangeville at Montgomery Village Public School. Dykstra and a teacher there and are designing a curriculum document that could be used for any grade from Kindergarten to Grade 12 to make the Water Rocker program available in all schools in the Upper Grand District School Board.
The Water Rockers program has been funded by a State Farm of America grant for the past two years. Dykstra said next year the program will not qualify, but it will carry on “grant or no grant.”
To donate to the Water Rockers campaign visit https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/erin-water-rockers-bottle-filling-station-fundrais.
