22 Mar 2010 1 Comment
Katie Spotz-light
Water, water, everywhere. . .
Today is World Water Day, and here at FirstGiving, we are thrilled to see people raising money online for clean water solutions all over the world. We could think of no better time to highlight the remarkable efforts of Katie Spotz, who has just spent 70 days thinking about water.
In fact, she’s been doing more than just thinking about it. She’s been both raising money online to provide water to people without access to safe drinking sources, and she’s been surrounded by water – lots and lots of water – as she rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Katie rowed solo from Dakar, Senegal, across the Atlantic to Georgetown, Guyana. It was a nearly unbelievable challenge – indeed, more humans have been to outer space than have rowed across an ocean. She had to bring all her food with her (including growing a small garden on board her boat), desalinate her own water, and sleep in a small, watertight cabin. The trip took her exactly 70 days, 5 hours, and 22 minutes, during which time she has had to contend with storms, injuries, and of course the massive physical and psychological effort of propelling herself, alone, across an ocean. In recognition and support of her hard work, lots of people have contributed to Katie’s FirstGiving fundraising page for the Blue Planet Run Foundation.
The Blue Planet Run Foundation is dedicated to solving the global water crisis, and they have ambitious goals of their own: providing safe, clean drinking water to 20 million people by 2015, and 200 million by 2027. By their calculations, it costs $30 to provide one person with clean water for life. Katie’s FirstGiving page has raised, so far, $74,760. That means that she has already made it possible for Blue Planet Run to provide water to nearly 2500 people.
But she’s not done yet. Katie has increased her fundraising goal to $84,510, which stands for $30 – water for life for one person – for each mile she rowed. Just because Katie has stepped onto dry land does not mean the effort is over; of course, for people with limited access to clean water, the struggle may not be over for some time. Katie and Blue Planet Run are still working tirelessly to help bring that struggle to an end.
To contribute to Katie’s efforts, check out her FirstGiving page here.
Online Fundraising Blog » » Fundraiser Spotlight: Heather Rine for the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area
May 12, 2010 @ 11:09:07
[...] other mindblowing feats of athletic ability. But most of us don’t run across countries or paddle across major oceans – and we still want to do our best to raise money for the causes important to [...]