By Elena Coe-McNamara
Staff Writer
Mira Costa junior Ryan Gustafson, sophomore Macallan Laver and freshman Lauren Stargardter have decided to reuse and recycle the school’s efforts from last year in order to continue reducing as much of Costa’s plastic waste as possible.
These three students have been working to install more hydration stations, which are water bottle refill stations, around the Costa campus, since September of 2015.
“I wanted to do this project because living in a beach community, plastic waste is what ends up in our ocean,” Laver said. “I really wanted to do something that makes a difference in the whole community, not just for one person.”
The three are involved in the Grades of Green Youth Corps, an organization that promotes environmental awareness and requires the students to complete a project that aids the environment and community each year. Laver began the hydration station project in January of 2015 and was joined by Stargardter and Gustafson later that fall.
“I joined the Youth Corps of Grades of Green because my passion for the environment has always been really strong, and I know that everything the program does helps better the environment and my community,” Laver said.
The first hydration station that Laver worked on was installed in the spring of 2015 near the football field bathrooms after he expressed an interest. According to Laver, the administration was already thinking about installing one and he simply pushed the idea to fruition by advocating for the cause. This year, Laver decided he wanted to continue on with the same project and install more stations. Gustafson and Stargardter had similar ideas for reducing waste, so the three combined efforts, Laver said.
“I want to put a hydration station down by the tennis courts because water is a major issue down there,” Stargardter said. “We have reusable water bottles, but nowhere to refill them, and we go through about 100 bottles in a match.”
The Laver family bought 100 water bottles from Costa’s boys lacrosse coach, Aaron Karsh, seeing as Laver and Gustafson both play, and then sold them for a higher price in order to promote the movement to reduce the amount of plastic bottles used at Costa. Then, the three students created a Snap! Raise fundraiser, a fundraising site, in which they sent emails to family and friends asking for donations in order to pay for the new hydration stations. When the trio reached out to MBX, the foundation was able to grant them almost $5,000.
“We are beyond grateful for MBX’s donation because they donated almost all of the money that we needed to install the next two hydration station units, and overall they were a huge help and our biggest supporter,” Stargardter said.
The new hydration stations are expected to be installed at Costa during the coming summer of 2016 with the help of Paul Ruta, the director of maintenance and operations for MBUSD, who directed the first installation. One of the new stations will be placed in the Mustang Mall, and the other will be placed in between the tennis courts and the baseball field.
“I thought the cause was cool,” sophomore Jack Sevier said. “I knew that Macallan was working on something that would make a difference, and I wanted to do what I could to help him.”
“The most rewarding part of the process was being able to see how their work has and will have an impact on the community,” Gustafson said.
“I would love to be able to eliminate all plastic water bottles at Costa and get hydration stations installed,” Laver said.
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