Thomas – 3/4/09 – Charity Water
Today, Rene, Nile, Malcolm, Jonah, Milo, and I went to visit Charity Water a block away from the high school. All six of us walked into the beautiful office space to be greeted by the volunteer coordinator Georgia Doremus and she ushered us to the sitting area with two big couches and two chairs. As the conversation was about to start, Nile had to give Georgia his phone so his mom could speak to her, but she then handed Nile his phone back and he sulked down embarrassed. However, we then started our conversation. We started out by telling Georgia about our sustainability project and that was followed up by her explaining Charity Water to us. What they do is sell merchandise such as bottled water, rubber bracelets, clothing, and a few other accessories to raise money to drill wells for schools in Africa. Two of the places in Africa are Kenya and Ethiopia. Their cause sounded simple, but it’s not. They have to raise at least 2 million dollars to achieve their goal. They are really dedicated to helping these children and schools. They have a program called Water For Schools where they get involved with schools throughout America to donate money and buy their merchandise to support schools in Africa, which is part of what we will be doing. We just need to sign our school up. We hope to sign up soon and be able to announce it at a near future middle school meeting.
So, getting back to our meeting, after Georgia explained Charity Water, us asking a few questions, and asking questions we went on a small tour of the office. About 20 people work there so far and Charity Water is only in New York City, but they are incorporated with over 100 schools throughout America. So, we then stopped in the room containing all of the merchandise. Nile got on there computer right away to try to sign our school up while Georgia handed us a bunch of bracelets to start out with and sell for $5 each at school. We each got one free though. Jonah got some business cards to put out in his mom’s store to advertise Charity Water. As we were leaving Georgia gave us a yellow jerry can that Africans use to carry water from the well in. So now we have a bunch of bracelets to sell and a big old jerry can. I think our new association with Charity Water is a great thing and they’re a great organization, and this visit expanded our view of our topic: water. They introduced us to a whole new cause that I think is really good to incorporate with what we’re doing. We have arranged to go back next Wednesday evening to volunteer as well as start selling their merchandise at school. We’re very excited to help Charity Water some more with their cause. The one problem. What will we do with the jerry can?