A dear family friend, Jessalyn Pinneo, recently sent me this note:
Hey guys,
I need your help. To celebrate my first year as a marathoner and the three marathons I’ve completed since last October, I’ve been working on a charity: water campaign to bring fresh, clean water to people who’ve been doing without around the world.
My campaign is called Running for Life, and every $1 donated to it gives one person freshwater for a full year. (How much have you spent on bottled water this year, or on a SIGG, Nalgene or Klean Kanteen?) I hope you’ll take a look – and spread the word. If each of you can send this message, or just this link to five people today, the impact could be huge.
Having easy access to freshwater isn’t something you or I think twice about. For us, it’s always been there. For the people charity: water helps, though, a new well or water pump means they have clean water to drink, wash and cook with. That means finally starting to move past the preventable diseases their communities have been plagued with, like dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever. And it means their children can go to school, rather than spending hours a day hauling dirty, brackish water from puddles and ponds.
I’ve avoided fundraising around my running in the past because I didn’t want to be a fundraiser in both my personal and professional lives, but charity: water is an amazing organization and the work they do provides one of the most basic of human necessities out there.
I’ve been asking people to give one dollar for every mile in a marathon – 26.2 – and some of you have already done that and more (and you’re awesome for it!). If you haven’t and are able to, a donation would be fantastic. If you’ve already donated or can’t manage it right now, I would be extremely grateful if you’d send this on to five people you think would be interested.
Jessi has until Dec. 3 to work on this campaign. This is a terrific organization that is doing so much good in the world. I can’t think of a better way to kick off this season of giving than to make a donation. If you’re a blogger, visit charity: water’s site and you can find buttons and banners to add to your sidebar (like the one on my left sidebar).