Re-filling stations carry on late daughter’s legacy

Melville students shun single-use bottles for reusable kind

By Jim McGaw
Posted 3/6/17

PORTSMOUTH — From a young age Kendra Bowers was always concerned about protecting the environment, said her mother, Katherine Bowers.

Kendra would regularly scold family members for …

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Re-filling stations carry on late daughter’s legacy

Melville students shun single-use bottles for reusable kind

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — From a young age Kendra Bowers was always concerned about protecting the environment, said her mother, Katherine Bowers.

Kendra would regularly scold family members for letting the water run, buying plastic water bottles, letting the car idle, leaving the refrigerator door open and more.

“We called her our green police,” Ms. Bowers said of her daughter, a Newporter who majored in environmental studies at the University of Vermont 

When Kendra suddenly died in a skiing accident in February 2014 at Sugarbush in Warren, Vt., the family was determined to carry on her legacy.

“She was a leader and she was determined,” said Ms. Bowers. “The week prior to her accident, she had written an environmental science paper which outlined what she wanted to do — what her vision was. The dean of students gave it to me and I said, ‘This is our roadmap.’”

The family didn’t have a concrete idea, however, until they spotted something during a roadtrip.

“We were coming back from traveling after her accident and we saw a water bottle filling station in the airport in North Carolina,” said Ms. Bowers, noting that Kendra always carried an Nalgene reusable water bottle whenever she traveled.   

“I took a look at it and said, ‘That’s what we’re doing.’”

In memory of Kendra, the Bowers formed the nonprofit Greenlove Foundation to promote environmental protection, which includes raising money for the purchase of water bottle filling stations in local schools and public recreation areas.

The filling stations are nothing new to the Portsmouth school district. Matt Murphy, head of school maintenance, said the middle school has six of them, the high school even more. 

Melville School, however, became the very first elementary school to be a recipient of the Foundation’s generosity when its new ELKAY filling station for reusable water bottles was unveiled last Thursday.

“Reusable” is the key word, here. This filling station, which can also serve as a normal water fountain, is not intended for single-use plastic bottles. 

“Every water bottle we use and save matters,” Danielle Laurie told students during last week’s assembly. 

Ms. Laurie, a special education teacher and an intern principal at Melville, facilitated the event. She kicked off the assembly by showing kids a short video, “Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle,” which pointed out the environmental hazards of single-use plastic bottles.

“The purpose is to encourage reusing a water bottle instead of using single-use plastic bottles,” Ms. Bowers told students. 

The station — which features a digital readout that tallies how many plastic bottles students have saved — is “very user-friendly,” she said. 

“You take your water bottle and put it under the dispenser and it shoots out water really fast,” said Ms. Bowers, who urged students to wash their reusable water bottles every day when they get home from school.

Bottles for all

Speaking of those bottles, Melville Principal Elizabeth Viveiros had another surprise for students.

“I’m going to be buying everyone in the school a Melville School water bottle,” said Ms. Viveiros. 

After the assembly, the principal said money that the school has received from The Feinstein Foundation will pay for the bottles. 

“The Feinstein Foundation is all centered around good deeds and my thought was, this is the perfect thing to use the funding for,” she said. “We did a food drive in the fall and we got $1,000, so I’ll use a portion of that. I’m looking at 500 of them because I want to get them for all the staff as well.”

So they won’t feel left out, the students at the district’s other elementary school, Hathaway, also got a filling station. 

“This sparked us to have one at Hathaway, because you can’t have one at one elementary school and not the other,” said Mr. Murphy, who was responsible for switching out the old water fountains for the new stations.

Ms. Bowers was humbled by the response last week from students, who got a sneak peak at the filling station before they boarded their buses. 

“Thanks to the school for supporting our cause and our mission. I have to say this is the best one yet,” she said.

For more information about the Greenlove Foundation, visit www.greenlovefoundation.org.

Greenlove Foundation, Melville School, Hathaway School

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.