Gianna Ziegler, Community School of Davidson junior, found out she won a design contest for Boomerang water, a Davidson based sustainable water bottle company, on April 15. How? During an interview with Entrepreneur magazine.

Ziegler first found out about the contest from her art teacher Jaque Junkins. Ziegler recalled her art teacher saying, “You should look at it, you would only have about two days to do it, but it’s for a really great cause.” After looking into the company’s background information, she thought it was a company with a good mission. “I totally agreed,” Ziegler said, “so I thought it was worth putting my art out there and to see if it would fit the company well.”

What is their mission? Boomerang delivers and reuses glass water bottles with the goal of eliminating single use plastic bottles. Over 50 billion plastic bottles are consumed by Americans each year. A single plastic bottle can sit in an environment from anywhere between 400-700 years. Jason Dibble, Boomerang founder and long-time Davidson resident, declares on his website that, “If we don’t start thinking collectively as a human race to solve the growing issues of single-use plastic, the future is tough. It’s very tough.” 

Ziegler’s design showcases many of Davidson’s most well-known places such as Lake Norman, Main Street, and more. “I know Davidson well, so I knew I could use that. So I looked up pictures of landmarks and places that Davidson is known for,” Ziegler said. “I mapped out some key places on the map so they’d be in order.” After a few drafts, she decided on the winning design.

In addition to getting her design on 2,000 limited edition Boomerang bottles, Ziegler also scored an interview with Entrepreneur Magazine, a popular magazine that has featured celebrities such as Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson, Kristen Bell, and Shaquille O’Neal. Ziegler was under the guise that she was being interviewed as a finalist, only to learn she won. 

“I was just really surprised because I did not expect to win.”

Want to get your hands on one of Ziegler’s bottles? Boomerang is donating 20 cases to the Community School of Davidson.