Xavier Prep athlete donates to Navajo Nation
Washing your hands has become more of a civic duty than a personal hygiene standard amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many Navajo reservation communities in northern Arizona are in dire need for cleansing resources as coronavirus cases continue to rise, which has resulted in fall sports season cancellations among multiple high schools in that area.
Phoenix Xavier College Prep volleyball senior Kaori Robertson, who helped lead the Gators to win the 2018 6A conference state title, raised $3,000 to deliver portable handwashing stations and touchless soap dispensers to several Navajo Nation sites in June.
The water stations are meant to reduce the transmission of germs and viruses usually associated with the touching of standard sink knobs and faucets.
Robertson launched a GoFundMe account on Facebook for the project, then embarked on a three-day trip spanning 1,451 miles to Bashas’ supermarkets in her extended family’s residence of Window Rock, Dilkon, Pinon, Tuba City, Kayenta, Chinle, Crownpoint, and Sanders.
She also donated the water stations and touchless soap dispensers to the Rocky Ridge Trading Post, Totsoh Trading Post in Lukachukai, Cameron and Burnside Chevron Visitor Centers.
“(The portable handwashing stations and touchless soap dispensers) will reduce it, but at the same time it will provide for the people of Navajo Nation some comfort and knowing that they do have the resources and are being heard,” Robertson said.
“When I was dropping them and (demonstrating), I could just see their faces light up and they were just thanking us profusely. You could see them being relieved that there was something for them.”
The project began after Kaori, her father, Jonathan, and mother, Jolene, traveled throughout the Navajo Nation and the Valley for Jonathan’s independently-owned landscape architecture company JSR Design to complete a few final inspection projects.
They traveled to Chinle and Dilkon for two separate projects, and had to stop as a grocery store to get some supplies at the Bashas’ supermarket in Dilkon, where store management required customers to wash their hands upon entry.
The handwashing station only had a spigot with knobs. Kaori realized that could be a factor in transmitting the coronavirus lingering on the knobs.
“My mom went in and she had to wash her hands. As she was explaining this to me, there were just a lot of areas of cross-contamination and I just thought of way to reduce the cross-contamination further,” Kaori said. “When I was thinking about that, I thought about camping and sometimes during camping we’d see people with these (hands-free) water stations.”
Kaori called the Bashas’ corporate office and worked with executives Rob Johnson and Ashley Shick to begin the process of donating hands-free water stations to the stores.
The portable washing stations hold five-gallons of water.
They are powered by water pressure from a foot pump at the bottom of the device. When the pump is stepped on, it pushes the water up through the faucet which doesn’t have any knobs required for operation.
Online retail prices for these water stations range from $115 to $250. Robertson was able to get a 20% discount with free shipping by using a promotional code from the Tido Home company for their portable handwashing stations.
Kaori is doing this project without any of her Xavier teammates and will continue to do so through the summer.
“The customers love it. The majority of them want to know where they can buy on, where they can get one. More people have washed their hands coming in and going out,” store manager of the Sanders Bashas supermarket Melvin Neel, said.
“They seem to be comfortable with it. The main thing we’re doing is to try and keep the place safe for everybody.”