Atlantic Rising and the Atlantic Rotary Club today (Friday) presented Washington Elementary School Principal Stacey Hornung and staff, with 300 hand sanitizer wristbands. The wristbands will be distributed to all educators and faculty to aid in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the school system.

Washington Elem. Principal Stacey Hornung and others receive a tub of 300 sanitizer wristbands,

Kelsey Beschorner, Atlantic Rising Social Chair explained how the idea came to be. She said “I was scrolling on my phone one evening and an ad popped up for hand sanitizer wristbands. I thought they were brilliant. Atlantic Rising was working on the Educator Appreciation night at the time and I thought, man, this would be great if every faculty member could have one of these as they head back to school.” Beschorner brought the idea up to Bailey Smith, Chamber Director and Rotary member, and both thought it would be the perfect partnership to accomplish the project.

Kelsey Beschorner shows the sanitizer wrist band

The bands were purchased locally, from J-and-J Design. The teachers and staff will wear them like a watch, with a bulb of sanitizer on the underside of their wrist, to simply pump into their palm when sanitizer is needed.

Bailey Smith said “As a service organization, one of Atlantic Rotary’s focus areas is education and ways the club can support and benefit students, faculty and the community. After sharing the idea with Rotary board members, we all agreed this would be a great partnership to aid and appreciate educators in the Atlantic community.”

Atlantic Rotary generously donated $1,000 to help cover the cost of the hand sanitizer wristbands. The wristbands are made of silicone and have a refillable reservoir for hand sanitizer. The user has a bottle with a plastic needle that fits into the reservoir and allows the user to refill the wristband easily. Brian Harris, Atlantic Rotary Club President, said “We recognized that this year has been particularly hard for all of the school’s staff and we understand that they are under a lot of stress. The Rotary Board voted and unanimously approved to move forward with this project because we thought it would be one way that we could alleviate some stress. Even though we will not be able to have our annual Rotary auction, we are still out in the community and willing to help wherever we can.”

To learn more about the organizations, visit their respective websites www.atlanticiowa.com and www.atlanticrotary.com.