The “Find My iPhone” app kept telling me I left my Airpods in the school house. I went in and asked Ms. Byrnes if she had any turned in recently and she directed me towards a huge, overflowing white cardboard box.

Losing water bottles and forgetting pencils is something that is always going to happen. Not being able to find those lost items is where the stress starts. There are many lost and founds around Williston’s campus, including in the main lobby of the Schoolhouse and in the Cage at the athletic center.

This year the lost and founds have been piling up in recent weeks. At the athletic center on Monday, Oct. 13 there were 10 water bottles in the cage.

Susan Byrnes, Williston’s Coordinator of Student Services, sits at the front desk of the Schoolhouse and sees the lost and found pile up behind her.

“I would say on a weekly bases that about two to three items are brought to the lost and found,” she said. “The items have been accumulating since the Whiteout game.”

Byrnes is referring to the Sept. 13 football game at home against Tabor Academy.

Byrnes has seen, “Airpods, water bottles, glasses, an umbrella, and a variety of clothes.”

At some point later in the year, if any of the items are not claimed then, “the items will probably go to the Wildcat Warehouse,” Williston’s own free clothing store located in Swan Cottage.

Another place that takes donations is the Easthampton Congressional Church. Byrnes would “ideally like them to come get their stuff though,” she said.

Currently in the Schoolhouse lost and found there is one surface charger, one umbrella, a schedule in a name tag holder, 12 sweatshirts/sweaters, two coats, one hat, four water bottles, two Airpod cases, and a soccer shin pad.

During Williston’s weekly school assembly on, Oct. 15, Kate Garrity, Associate Dean of Students, announced that if the clothes and other items were not picked up before long weekend (beginning Oct. 17) then they would be donated to multiple charities.

Alex Munro, a Williston senior from London, U.K., tends to lose items that he doesn’t stress about.

“I would say I lose around 3-4 things a week,” Alex said. “Most of the time what I lose is clothes or pencils. I also forget things a lot like water bottles.”

A reason for the lost and found pile continuing to grow is because students like Alex don’t feel any great pressure to retrieve their items.

“I don’t usually get them back because I don’t feel like I need it that bad to put in the effort to go find it,” Alex said. “I know there is a lost in found in the Schoolhouse but I have never looked at it before.

Sawyer Berzins, a junior from Littleton, Colo., only loses small things like water bottles or anything that isn’t the top of his priorities.

“I’ve lost two water bottles since making it to school,” Sawyer said. “It’s not that I don’t really care, it’s just not my top priority.”

Another reason that the pile hasn’t gotten any smaller is because the people who have lost their items don’t know where the lost and found is.

“I probably would go look if I knew where the lost and founds are,” Sawyer said.

After five days, Sawyer has not gone to look for the water bottles; he says he hasn’t had the time to go look.

“I personally don’t think I will because I lost them a while ago,” he said.