(Photos provided)

LAKE PLACID — Thanks to three local third-graders, a new water bottle filling station will be installed at Lake Placid Elementary School this summer.

Students Charlie Fox, Emmett Fox and Kendra Levitt, all 9 years old, recently raised $1,500 to purchase a new station for the school’s third-grade wing with help from their teachers Patricia Damp, Jason Leon and Jennifer Winch.

Lake Placid/Wilmington Connecting Youth and Communities, a local youth development organization, contributed $1,000. CYC will also purchase water bottles for next year’s third-graders. Elementary school Principal Sonja Franklin chipped in the remaining $500.

With the funding in place, the students wrote speeches to implore the school board to give them permission to tear out the old fountains and replace them. The students practiced their speeches in school, and when they were ready, Charlie, Emmett and Kendra spoke to the Lake Placid Central School District Board of Education Tuesday and made their case.

“We already have the money. We just need you to help us install it,” Levitt told the board.

One by one, the students stood from their front-row seats in the audience and spoke about how they felt the new station would serve a dual purpose: It would cut down on pollution while improving kids’ quality of life.

“We think it’s important for a few reasons,” Charlie said. “One reason is that the water is warm and it has a bad taste, and that taste stays in your mouth for a long time. Another reason is that it takes forever to fill your water bottle. The new filling station will allow you to fill your bottle way faster.” He said the speed is important because kids are missing class to fill up their water bottles.

“The new filling station saves a bunch of plastic bottles from piling up for about 500 years. Also, some plastic water bottles end up in oceans and lakes and can hurt many animals,” he said. “You won’t only be helping us, but the environment, too.”

School board members were in favor of the idea. Some praised the students for their work.

“I commend you on the fact that we’re so late in the year and you’re doing this for those classes yet to come,” said Richard Preston, president of the school board. “That means a lot.”

The water bottle filling station will be purchased and installed this summer before the start of the next academic year.