MENDOTA – As the pandemic rages on, support for one another and community has never been more critical.

In another act of kindness among many during the past 17 months, Kurt Bruno State Farm Insurance has donated 600 reusable State Farm water bottles to Northbrook, Lincoln and Blackstone schools in Mendota. All of the water bottles are customizable so each student can be assigned to their own bottle.

“We wanted to do something with the schools in our town due to the difficulty students, teachers and faculty have been faced with this last year, so we reached out to each school and asked them what they would need or are in short supply of for the school year, and they all responded that they have a need for reusable water bottles,” said Bruno.

All the drinking fountains in the schools have now been replaced with bottle filling stations. The need for water bottles the schools are seeing is mainly in the students who are not able to afford reusable water bottles, so many times they go without water throughout the day or the school has to provide them with some, taking away from other expenses.

Kurt Bruno State Farm Insurance delivered the water bottles to the schools on Aug. 31. They were accepted by Superintendent Brad Cox, Northbrook principal Paula Daley, Northbrook assistant principal Emory Burdette, Lincoln principal Dave Lawrence and Blackstone principal Stacy Kelly.