Gimme some water…

image courtesy of photobucket.com

Cuz I shot a man on the Mexican border/Cool, cool water/Gimme some water…

I’ve had that song in my head for the past 3 days, and every time it plays in my head, I’m reminded of this:

I take a lot for granted…

The list is endless, really. But in the interest of space, I’ll stick to something that not only do I take for granted, I rarely even think about:

The access I have to clean drinking water. It surrounds me. Just within the confines of my home, I can go to one of six sinks, turn a handle and clean water flows from the faucet. Walk out to the garage, and there’s the mop sink, next to the second refrigerator with ice and water in the door.

Open that refrigerator and you will find it filled with soft drinks, a few (Ahem) cans of low carb monster and (for convenience sake) bottled water. Then there’s the outside spigots–five total. And while I typically don’t drink from the water hose outside, the water is perfectly safe to drink. Where does this water come from? It comes from an underground well on the property. I have no idea how it gets from the ground into our house, just that a pressure tank is involved.

While many of you reading this may get your water differently, chances are pretty good that you have access to seemingly unlimited amounts of clean water.

Not everyone is so fortunate:

A couple of weeks ago, fellow blogger and funny man Bryan Allain sent me an email asking if I would join with him and some other pretty amazing bloggers in a campaign called 30 Bloggers, 30 Days, $30,000. The goal is to raise $30,000 in 30 days. Here’s the list of fine folks Tyler Stanton and Bryan Allain have assembled:

Bryan Allain, Matt Appling, Trey Boden, Jason Boyett, Everett Bracken, Stephen Brewster, Burnside Writers Collective, Billy Coffey, Tripp Crosby, Greg Darley, Sam Davidson, Rachel Held Evans, Evan Forester, Chad Gibbs, Susan Isaacs, Kevin Keigley, Lacey Keigley, Wes Molebash, Scott Moore, Eric Olsen, AJ Passman, Katdish, Brad Ruggles, Rob Shepherd, Jeff Shinabarger, Shawn Smucker, Tyler Stanton, Tyler Tarver, Tyler Thigpen, Karen Spears Zacharias

I don’t often ask for money here, and I don’t plan on making this a regular thing. But what I love about this campaign is that the money is targeted to reach a specific group of people. I like the idea of making a quantifiable difference, not just putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. Often it seems I will write a check to a charity and wonder how much of it will actually reach the people in need. This is different. Here’s where this money will go:

• Our goal is $30,000. This provides clean water to 1,500 people (300 families, 6 entire communities).
• 100% of the money donated goes towards water projects. Private donors take care of all the overhead.
• $20 provides 1 person clean water for 20 years.
• Our money will go towards building water projects in Central African Republic.
• If you give, charity: water will keep you up-to-date with the status of your project, provide you with GPS coordinates of exactly where the well you contributed to is being built, and take pictures and video along the way.

So, how can you help?

• GIVE. $20 provides clean water for one person for 20 years! Go to the 30 Bloggers, 30 Days, $30,000 site and make a donation.
• SHARE about it on Facebook and Twitter. Follow @charitywater here.
• Blog about it.30 bloggers is simply a starting point. We would love to have y’all join us and help spread the word! And if you do blog about it, please let me know so I can link back to your post.

Last but not least, here’s a bunch of cool downloads, banners and twitter backgrounds you can use. Thanks in advance for helping out. I’m really excited about this!