Why Wait?

This past year at Osceola High School, Emily Fox and I (Brooke Bents), partnered up to develop a service-learning project contributing to ending the global water crisis. A new club introduced to the school last year is called “Why Wait?”, which is focused on the important question: why wait to change the world? Emily and I centered our project on World Water Day, which is held in the later half of March every year. We wanted to help a school located in an impoverished region that lacked access to fresh and clean water, and this is how we landed upon the organization H2O for Life. 

Our principal had mentioned it in passing about how Patty Hall, the founder of H2O for Life, had spoke at a local Rotary Club meeting, and how the organization was something special. Emily and I decided that H2O for Life provided the perfect opportunity to help children without access to clean water, and also contributed helpful resources to go about raising money and awareness. After browsing through the surplus of projects available, we chose the Kimu Primary School, located in Lobule, Uganda. 

To fundraise, we first applied for grants and asked local businesses to donate money to our cause. We used these funds to buy supplies to create items to sell to raise money. The items we sold were custom made water bottles with the phrase “Save World Save Water” placed on them, personally designed World Water Day stickers, and hand-made footprint key chains. We also incorporated our local middle school by selling our items through them, educating them on the threats of insufficient water access, and a coin wars game where they competed against one another to raise the most money. Our final event was held on World Water Day, which was an awareness event that presented to our community the importance of having access to a reliable water source to perform daily life tasks. 

In total we raised $1,100 to contribute to our portion of the borehole well to be drilled at the Kimu Primary School, as well as extra funds which we gave to Escuela Jose Trinidad located in Honduras, where improvements on clean water and sanitation were made. Through this service project Emily and I gained an immense amount of knowledge about fundraising foundations, writing grant applications, communicating with business owners and other board members, creating advertising campaigns, and correctly managing money.  

We are so thankful to have partnered with H2O for Life this past year. They are truly dedicated to ending the global water crisis by activating and engaging youth to make a difference. They empower kids and show them that anyone can make an impact with enough hard work and motivation.