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Palm Beach County students donate water refill stations to elementary school

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Posted at 3:22 PM, Nov 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-08 18:14:13-05

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Three Palm Beach County students are doing their part to eliminate plastics that harm our environment.

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Together, students Gemma Currie, Emily Briceno, and Marina Barto are Surface 71, now an official non-profit organization dedicated to making our community a better, cleaner place to live.

"Our goal is to aware as many people as possible about the problem with plastics in our environment right now," said Currie.

That starts with the youngest minds. Surface 71, which stands for the 71 percent of Earth covered in water, just donated water refill stations to Palmetto Elementary School in West Palm Beach, encouraging students to cut the plastic.

"It kind of stops the plastic water bottle cycle," said Currie.

"It's a great addition to the school because the students get to have water that is filtered, nice, and cold, and they need to use a bottle," said Gladys Harris, the principal at Palmetto Elementary School.

This marks the fourth Palm Beach County school to receive the water refill stations, which not only make a positive impact on the environment, but also on the students who use them.

"It really is inspiring for our students here in elementary school to see someone in high school do it, and if they can do it, I can do it," said Harris.

For the Surface 71 team, this is just the beginning. They and they hope others will join their fight.

"We care so much, and when someone has such a big passion for something, then they should listen and they should want to help out," said Currie.

Surface 71 donated about 15 of reusable water bottles to the students at Palmetto Elementary School. They also have more water refill stations planned for additional schools in the community.