Waitsburg Youth Walk for Water

WAITSBURG - Waitsburg Elementary School students wrapped up the school year by raising over $500 in their second annual Walk for Water fundraiser.

Kindergarten teacher Pam Nolan-Beasley started the fundraiser last year, when the school earned $555 that went to fund a rainwater catchment and storage system for a school of 398 students in Kenya. The school worked with Water Charity (www.watercharity.org) and solicited donations from friends and family to raise funds.

During last year's successful project, Beasley began researching Guatemalan City garbage dump workers and hoped to focus on them in 2014. These workers spend long days sorting through trash to find recyclables and live in homes without running water, causing them to experience frequent health problems such as gastrointestinal infections, parasites and amoebas, according to the watercharity.org website.

This year, Waitsburg Elementary is working directly with Safe Passage - a nonprofit that provides education and social services to 550 children of the dump workers - to provide Sawyer water filters for their school. Sawyer filters use carbon nanotubes to remove all contaminants and have been proven to last for 10 years with minimal maintenance. The filters can be set up quickly and easily and have a high flow rate which eliminates the need to store water.

For the last few weeks Waitsburg students have solicited donations, spent their recesses walking, and taken part in enrichment activities such as Family Water Experiment Night. Last Friday students enjoyed a Field Day which included several water-related events.

"I'm so impressed with the students this year," said Beasley. "I had a chance to talk with each of the primary students at Field Day last week, and they seem to sincerely understand this need. I could tell they learned a lot about the limited amount of clean water on our earth, but more importantly, they have an awareness of and empathy for, others outside our community. These kids walked for miles and also opened up their hearts and piggy banks knowing they were helping families in Guatemala.

The project wrapped up on Monday afternoon with a balloon toss where students could buy "special" water balloons that included permission to toss at a favorite teacher or superintendent. Marne Henderson's third grade students bought $119 worth of balloons to toss at Henderson, who they nicknamed the Aqua Musketeer. Waitsburg Elementary students raised a total of $525 for the cause.