Walking for Water: A Family's Journey to Make a Difference

In the fall of 2021, our family read Linda Sue Park's A Long Walk to Water as part of our social studies. The novel, based on real experiences of Second South Sudanese Civil War survivors, opened our eyes to the impact of bringing clean water to a community. Having access to clean water close to home changes everything. Children become healthy. Women and girls can devote their time to something besides hauling water . . . like pursuing education, developing skills, and improving their personal, family, and community situation. 
That year, we learned about WaterAid International and began following its work. We dreamed of organizing a Walk for Water . . . but we underestimated the commitment a successful event would entail. Our dream to raise $1000 for WaterAid petered out that year to a personal donation of $100.
As I planned our 2024-2025 school year, I did so with a clear goal to incorporate community service as an essential element of our family education. Anticipating the Weather and Water science unit we would study in March, I did a little research and learned that World Water Day falls on March 22. That was a Saturday this year. It was a perfect fit for our science unit; and based on our previous Water Walk failure, I had a clearer idea this time of what such an undertaking would demand. I pitched the plan last June to my children and the cousins and aunties with whom we share daily homeschool experiences. With their buy-in, I proceeded to lay initial groundwork.

J'Ana Smith, a dear friend with past experience organizing charity runs, mentored me throughout the summer. She asked me how much money I'd like to raise. "One thousand dollars?" I ventured. "Oh, that'll be easy," she said. So when I registered our event with WaterAid, I pushed all my "dream big" buttons and ventured a $10,000 goal instead. 
J'Ana's advice gave me the leads I needed to register my event with WaterAid, procure a venue, and begin making preparations to publicize. Come January 1, the kids and I hit the ground running, enlisting team members to walk with us and businesses to donate either cash to WaterAid, door prizes for our event, or both. My kids and their cousins set walking goals and started tracking their kilometers. (Having a winter fitness goal kept us more active than we would have otherwise been; and New Year's was a great time to capitalize on people's momentum to get active.) The kids crafted a poster and presentation which we began presenting to the Raymond Town Council and to any local business owner who would squeeze us in. One pitch after another, these community leaders listened and donated generously. "The need is real," they shared with my students. Most of the business owners to whom we pitched had visited countries that WaterAid services and had seen first-hand the difficulties of life without clean water. One of the many powerful experiences this project offered my students was the opportunity to hear community leaders share their first-hand experiences with water needs around the world.
Twice during our twelve-week campaign, the children plastered the town with event posters. The first posters enlisted team members to walk and solicit sponsors with us. By mid-February, we shifted to encouraging people to join us at our big event. So many people supported our efforts to spread the word, most notably the Raymond High School Happy Helpers service club. We got to know the club members as we worked shoulder to shoulder at Raymond Rotary Club's annual Valentine dinner dance. The Happy Helpers posted posters around the high school and helped us set up, run, and clean up after our Water Walk. We couldn't have succeeded without them!
Saturday's Water Walk celebrated twelve-and-a-half weeks of work and walking. Nineteen team members joined my students on the walking and fundraising trail. Seventy-nine online supporters have donated to our walk to date; and many others gave cash donations at our walk (totaling over $1,000). And the donations keep trickling in. To date, we have raised $7,658 dollars, over 76% of our ambitious $10,000 goal. Our advisors at WaterAid have asked to write about and share our story. We are humbled by the generous response of our tremendous community and honored to have partnered with a charity that is unlocking people's potential with access to clean water.

All the best,

Sheralee Hardy Family