It’s a sight we’re all too familiar with: tilting water bottles at a perfect 45 degree angle just to get a few spurts of water in it before class starts. Or, in even dire situations, waiting for those finicky motion sensing sinks to dribble some water into the bottom of your bone-dry Poland Springs bottle. Wave goodbye to those first world problems Colonels! In just a few short weeks, Ledyard High School will be installing water bottle refilling stations at each of the water fountains.

“Water bottle fillers are either retrofit parts to our current water fountains or whole units,” Social Studies teacher Bill Casertano said. “They’ll all be chilled and filtered.”

If the words chilled and filtered sound like heaven to you, there’s more good news.

“The 400s [hallway] one should be in this week or next, the one in Ag will be done after that, and the 100s [hallway] and the 300s [hallway] will be done after [Thanksgiving] break,” Casertano said.

The idea for tackling this project comes from an unlikely source: the sophomore Civics in Action Project, CAP for short, done in each Civics class. This project is notorious for fostering A+ student-led projects and ideas to change something in their community, but the process is always halted, by money, time or unanswered emails.

“I first wanted to develop something realistic and achievable,” junior Dan Contino said. “Most kids can’t really get anything to drink unless they go to the Ag hallway or wait until lunch.”

And if you’re getting thirsty just reading this article, stay tuned for information on aluminum water bottles for sale with the Ledyard High crest in white, sold by Student Congress.

“Eventually we want to reduce plastic waste by selling Ledyard-sponsored reusable water bottles,” Contino said. “This may go toward paying off the water fountains themselves, along with promoting school spirit.”

Leah Sheltry, Assistant Editor in Chief

Senior Leah Sheltry is the Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the 2015-2016 Colonel. She is the secretary of Youth United for Global Action and Awareness (YUGA) Club and is on the swim team.