A Drop In The Bucket?

I f you've been around the Waitsburg elementary school lately, you may have seen kids doing something a bit unusual. They're walking laps around the playground. No, this isn't a form of punishment. It's not even intended strictly as exercise, though that never hurts.

The kids, who complete three to five laps around their beloved recess hangout, are making a point about the distance many kids in other parts of the world have to travel every day to find safe drinking water and they want you to help them make a difference in the lives of those other kids.

"This is so important," said Pam Nolan-Beasley, the Kindergarten teachers at Waitsburg Elementary who is spearheading this month's "Walk For Water" fundraiser for grades K - 6. "This is just such an issue in third-world countries."

Even to residents of the Touchet River Valley, where water feeds the crops in the fields that amount to many a livelihood, it's hard to imagine not having access to safe drinking water. Yet while 70 percent of the earth is covered with water, only 1 percent of it is drinkable, Nolan-Beasley said.

In many parts of the world, the source of water alone is three to five miles away and it's often contaminated. Millions of people die each year from drinking unclean water.

Nolan-Beasley said she was inspired by the enthusiasm kids showed for the Walk Across America exercise program the kids participated in last year and wanted to "walk for a cause" this year.

The goal is to raise money through donations (perhaps pledges next year) and funnel them through Water Charity, a California-based nonprofit that provides water well, tank, filtration and systems repair projects in needy communities in 60 countries around the world.

Through their participation, the kids not only learn about the importance of water in science and everyday life as part of school curriculum, but also connect to the challenges other kids and families face, Nolan- Beasley said. "They're passionate about this. It helps them with global awareness." The laps the kids walk around the playground add up to the distance it takes many of their counterparts elsewhere to get to a water source, a time-consuming endeavor that often prevents them from attending school. Some classes here will dispense a drop of water in a bucket for each completed lap. Others carry a bucket to appreciate the weight and physical challenge of obtaining drinking water.

When the month wraps up, the kids will help Nolan Beasley decide where to send the money they've raised. For now, she has her eye on a hand-washing station project at a school in Guatemala and her dream is to go to such a site in person eventually.

She said Waitsburgers who are interested in supporting the project, can earmark their donations "Water Charity" and make them out to the Waitsburg Elementary ASB, PO Box 217, Waitsburg, WA 99361. For more information about the cause, call Nolan-Beasley at 509-337-6461 and/or visit www.watercharity.org.

With support from the community, the kids' Walk For Water hopefully will add up to more than a drop in the bucket.