On March 15, the Greenlove Foundation(GLF) dedicated a water Water Bottle Filling Station(WBFS) at 360 High School in Providence in memory of Kendra L. Bowers.   Kendra was an active environmental student at UVM with an enthusiastic passion to “preserve and protect our land and resources.” She lived by the “recycle, reduce and reuse” mantra on a daily basis.  “Look at the land with wide eyes and a careful touch…” was a favorite quote she shared with everyone.

Mr. Ramiro Gonzalez lead and welcomed an assembly that was attended by enthusiastic students and faculty, GLF board members, and Laura Hart, who is the Director of Communication for Providence Public Schools.  Artistic posters created by Environmental class students for a contest, allowed 10 lucky students who pledged to eliminate single bottle usage and reduce plastic waste, a chance to win a refillable water bottle decorated with the high school’s name on it.  A t-shirt worn by many students with the logo “Ban The Bottle” created by students were worn as they presented a video, “The Lifecycle of a Bottle.” A special thank you was given to Mr. Brown and Megan O’Connor, the environmental 2017-2018 class, the 2018-2019 environmental class and The 360 Maker Lab.

The GLF has created a School Base Educational Planning guide that contains a timeline for planning projects, building leadership roles and providing resources to educate, empower and cultivate students.  The goal is to engage students with current environmental and sustainability issues and generate environmental awareness through project based learning. The students and faculty use the guidelines and ideas to create their own projects and activities.  Many parts of the planning guide have been adopted by the State of Rhode Island “Task Force to Tackle Plastics.”  Greenlove board members, Kathy Bowers and Sasha Garfield, are part of the education committee.

The 360 HS was one of three schools selected to be part of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant.   Students enrolled in the school’s Environmental Studies class are involved in real field studies, collect data and participate in habitat restoration in and around local waters of RI.  360 HS will host three schools in an eco conference where they will share their data and findings. In addition to the bay work, the students participated in community service projects relating to the impact of environmental awareness.   The installation of the WBFS was part of the community service, along with labeling storm drains in their neighborhoods. Also, on April 22, EARTH DAY, the school plans to have a school wide event that includes a tree planting and a school/neighborhood cleanup.

The WBFS is equipped with a filter to eliminate toxins (lead, etc.) from the drinking water and is equipped with a counter that records the amount of times a reusable water bottle is used by the members of the school.  To date, over 2,000 refills have been recorded!

To date, 16 WBFS donated by The Greenlove Foundation have been installed in 10 RI schools, 6 in recreational areas and parks, including one at the South Carolina Aquarium.

For more information, www.greenlovefoundation.org or info@greenlovefoundation.org.

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