WATERTOWN — A Watertown High School student’s vision to help his fellow classmates became more of a reality when a hygiene vending machine was delivered Wednesday for students who may not be able to afford hygiene products.
The vending machine, spearheaded by Watertown junior Connor Brown, is going to give students a chance to get essential hygiene products such as toothpaste and deodorant at no cost.
The district is partnering with Planned Parenthood of Jefferson County, the National Honor Society, and Kinney Drugs to stock the machine.
Planned Parenthood is organizing drives to collect products, the National Honor Society will stock the machine as part of its community service, and Kinney Drugs will be providing the bags.
The vending machine is in an area where there isn’t a lot of foot traffic, so that students can go to it without other students knowing.
Connor and district officials toured the building to find a place that would be safe and secure with a camera and in a discrete enough area.
“We realize in schools we can’t educate kids unless their needs are met, and hygiene poverty is one of the areas that we need to address to make sure that when our kids are in school that they’re ready to learn,” Superintendent of Schools Larry C. Schmiegel said Wednesday. “I applaud Connor Brown and the team of people that have worked around him to bring this to fruition.”
The school will also look at data to see what students are getting from the machine.
In addition to getting students the help they need, Schmiegel said the vending machine is allowing a student’s dream to “come to fruition.”
“When we have kids in our school district that want to help their peers, in my heart, I’m led to find a way to make that happen,” Schmiegel said. “My job really was essentially to work with him to remove any barriers possible to actually bring that vending machine to that high school.”
The machine cost about $5,000 and it is anticipated to be ready to go the Monday after next week’s spring break.
Inkwell Graphix is doing the wrapping on the machine.
If it works at the high school, Planned Parenthood may try to put one in other places in the community.
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