REXBURG — The Rexburg and Madison County DARE program has a new vehicle thanks to local fourth graders and Rexburg’s water conservation efforts. Representatives from the Wyland Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to clean water and oceans, donated a new Toyota Highlander Hybrid to the DARE program during a ceremony at Madison Middle School Thursday. The car was part of a first-place award given to Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill by Foundation president Steve Creech for winning the Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation.
“We’re so excited for it to culminate with the winning of a car for the DARE officers to use … the great thing about it is we just found out we used 128 acre-feet less of water this year than we did at this time last year,” Merrill says.
Residents from across the country participated in the water conservation challenge by pledging to save over a billion gallons of water over the next year. The campaign happens each year in the month of April to promote drought resiliency and see which city is the most water-wise. Merrill says some 10,000 pledges came from Rexburg.
Because of the city’s big win, a nominated charity got to be the recipient of a Toyota Hybrid SUV. The DARE program was nominated several times through locals making pledges online to save water on the Wyland Foundation’s website.
“I think what separated Rexburg in this initiative was that it was truly a community initiative. You had the schools involved, you had the companies involved, and you had great support from the city leaders,” Creech says.
(Read more at EastIdahoNews.com --
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