NORRIDGEWOCK — Cheryl Brigham, fifth-grade teacher at Mill Stream Elementary, was approached by a few students asking to organize a fundraiser for animals.

A representative from the W.I.L.D. Zoo visited the school with some endangered animals. He introduced the brown bat and explained White Nose Syndrome and how it’s affecting the bats, and our ecosystem.

After this visit, the group of students knew their cause. The fundraiser is called Bottles for Bats. They stayed after school to organize, make posters, write essays to share with other classes and designed a bottle drive competition between classrooms to raise money to send to the W.I.L.D Zoo for the Bat Initiative.

Every Thursday after school they stayed to collect and count the bottles, and their parents brought them to the local redemption center every Friday morning. The fundraiser began April 21, and the final collection was May 24.