Thanks to a generous award from the American Water Charitable Foundation's "Keep Communities Flowing" grant program, AFD will soon close a long-standing gap in our facilities: the lack of equal access to clean, filtered drinking water.

Many of our stations rely on aging plumbing, where our members have had to buy their own bottled water or water filtration systems to stay properly hydrated on shift. The $30,000 grant will fund eight Elkay bottle-fill stations across seven facilities; five will retrofit existing fountains, and three will be new standalone installations bringing every active AFD station up to the same standard.

This opportunity was made possible by the Friendship Veterans Fire Engine Association, which applied for and secured the grant on AFD's behalf. Their application made the case that hydration isn't a convenience for our personnel; it's an occupational health and safety necessity, particularly for members working in full PPE during extended operations in extreme heat. The application also highlighted the environmental upside: each Elkay unit tracks the number of plastic bottles saved, giving us a clear, ongoing measure of reduced single-use plastic waste across the department.

Installations are planned at the following locations:

The fill stations are scheduled for delivery in mid-July. Logistics will be coordinating installation scheduling with each station over the summer.