Tuesday, September 01, 2009

A Verry Merry "Un"-Birthday: Give water!

My sister's having a birthday this month, and she decided to do something cool with it. This is the email she sent out:

Hi everyone,

Today I came across this great nonprofit called charity: water that works to help provide clean drinking water to those who don't yet have access to it. Turns out there's a billion people worldwide who don't have clean drinking water, and may even have to walk miles to access the bit of polluted water they are able to drink. Nearly 50,000 people will die just this week as a result of this poor water quality. This organization raises money to be able to go to these communities and build water wells, so they are able to get the water they need-- something so essential to life, yet that we take for granted every day as we turn on the tap in our kitchens and bathrooms.

Charity: water started 3 years ago, when one of its future founding members decided to "give up" his birthday (which was in September) and instead of asking for gifts ask everyone to donate $20, with the goal of helping with this water problem. He raised $1,400 and was able to build 6 water wells with it. The project has taken off since then, and has now provided something like 700,000 people with clean drinking water.

One of the ways they raise money is by asking other September birthdays to "give up" their birthdays in the same way. And that's what I'm doing this year-- instead of birthday gifts, I'm asking any of you who were planning on buying me something (or who simply want to help out) to donate to this cause. You can do this at the fundraising page I have set up here:


I've set my goal amount to $400. Will you help me meet it?

Thank you! =)
Marcy


(Wish I'd heard about this in July! Maybe next year...)

1 comment:

  1. What a great idea - wish I'd known about this in July, too, when I had my thirtieth birthday. Could've asked for sums in quantities of 30 = $0.30, $3.00, $13.30, $30.00, etc.

    Darn!

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