Hingham School Celebrates Earth Day By Opening Hydration Station

As Hingham High School students returned from April Vacation on Monday, administration made sure to remind everyone that it was Earth Day.

Before classes even started, Assistant Principal Rick Swanson and the Aquarion Water Company held a ribbon cutting to unveil the school’s newest hydration station, which filters  the school’s tap water and makes it cold and refreshing. 

Swanson said the stations encourage students to drink from reusable water bottles instead of plastic bottles, which can be unfriendly to the environment. 

“It’s really exciting to see the level of excitement that the kids have for this,” Swanson said as he watched students from all grade levels use the station. “It’s a good illustration of how far we have come as we promote sustainable behavior here.”

Before class, a crowd of over 20 students including  high school senior Abby Terres lined up to drink from it.

“Our school has definitely made a very big push to get students to ‘go green,’” Terres said.  “We use reusable lunch boxes and reusable water bottles and I think it’s great that they’re encouraging us to use them.”

Aquarion donated the station to the high school’s second floor and passed out reusable bottles to the first 50 students who used it.  HHS senior Andrew Flynn received one and said they will remind students to use the stations and fill up rather than bringing plastic bottles.

Members of the faculty also said they have noticed an increase of students using reusable water bottles since the first hydration station in the school’s main lobby was donated by Aquarion in 2011 and a second station outside the cafeteria was given as a gift from the PTO.

Aquarion Community Relations Manager Ronit Goldstein was on-hand at the school on Earth Day to pass out water bottles and said she was pleased to see students use the station.

“It’s exciting that the younger generation is aware that you don’t need plastic water bottles,” Goldstein said.

Leading up to Earth Day, Hingham High School has organized many programs to educate students on the importance of helping the environment.

Last month, HHS held a Green Week and last November they participated in the fifth annual America Recycles Day  "Teach in," where they raised awareness about environmental issues.