U N A C C E P T A B L E
Get ready, one week from today we are going to make a difference. You can do it too! Here are the details.
What is a Water Warrior?
--We are people committing to drinking tap water for a week. No drive-thru soda's. No fancy latte on the way to work. No can of soda at home. We are taking the money we WOULD have spent on those things and saving it for a week, to later be donated to a charity that provides clean drinking water.
Okay. Why?
--4,000 children died yesterday because they don't have access to clean water. Another 4,000 children will die today. We don't think that is right. We take for granted our ability to flush a toilet and never see the sewage again. We take for granted our ability to turn on the faucet and have clean water to drink that won't make us sick and won't kill us.
Details?
--We'll be posting and checking in every day. You can read every day and comment or not, up to you.
For someone like me who loves her McDonald's Sweet Tea, this won't be easy. But you know what else isn't easy? Watching your child suffer and die because they didn't even have water. So yeah, I'll whine this week. But I'm also going to suck it up and do it. My life problems are so minuscule and insignificant when we look at the bigger picture.
--You can make coffee at HOME, provided you use your tap water to brew it.
--If you happen to have packets of crystal light or flavored water mix at home, you can use those to flavor your water.
--If you go out to eat, you should order a glass of ice water. Tap water. No Fancy Shmancy brand.
--alcoholic beverages are also discouraged this week.
--If you usually buy a 12 pack of Coke to have at home for the week, don't. Donate the money instead.
Do I have to give YOU my money? I don't know you.
--No. You don't send me money. You will donate it to a charity of your choice (we will provide a list of several that are known to work with clean water as a focus).
--The amount of money each person donates will be DIFFERENT. If you have a $3 latte on the way to work every day, and give that up for this duration, you'll have a higher amount to donate than someone who just has two gas-station .89cent soda's each week. That is OKAY.
Can I do this if I don't have a blog?
--YES. Please do!
--It would be great if an entire family wanted to do this together! It is not a requirement though, and certainly any babies and children should be given their regular breastmilk/formula/whole milk/doctors orders. Talk to your spouse and older kids and see if maybe they are willing to do without their soda or latte for the week. The savings can add up!
How do I tell others?
--At the bottom of this post is a tweet button, if you are on twitter you can click that and it will tweet a link to this post. You can do that as many times as you want. There is also the Google +1 button to click, a facebook button, and a button to send this post as an email. Additionally, you can just copy and paste the URL and send it in an email/text/facebook post yourself.
--You can also grab the "I am a Water Warrior" button on the sidebar and put it on YOUR blog. This will show all of your readers the good you are up to!
--Water Warriors starts today Friday March 16th and ends on Thursday, March 22nd, World Water Day.
Linking to spread the word at: Serenity Now
OK - I tweeted this, and I can do this, but its not going to be a sacrifice for me since all I drink is water and coffee brewed at home anyway.
ReplyDeleteI go through the drive through once or twice a week to get coffee at Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds or Starbucks. I will have to skip my Starbucks run this week because it's my BJs week, and there happens to be a Starbucks next door. That's minor compared to worrying that my water could kill me. Lately, since becoming a SAHM, I've felt kind of poor, but that seems so ridiculous when compared to others in the world, I live in luxury.
Thanks for helping spread the word Angie! The dollars you would usually spend on a coffee a couple times a week at the drive-thru will add up! One clean water initiative I looked at, it was only $55 to get a water filter system to provide clean water for at least TEN people. $55 can save 10 lives.
DeleteI know how you feel about being a SAHM. I could write a dozen posts on my struggles to find a sense of worth, comparing what I have to what everyone else has...maybe after the water series. :-)
What if we slip up and buy something without thinking about it? Do we just add the amount we spent on the drink to the donation amount anyway?
ReplyDeleteThat would be up to you to decide. :) I hope you'll join us!
DeleteIf I wanted to post along these lines on my blog, what should I do? Do you want me to just put your post on my blog, or just link to yours? Like I would need to list the "guidelines" even if I wrote my own post.
DeleteI would love for you to spread the word!
DeleteYou are welcome to copy and paste my post as long as you link to me and give me credit. Or you can paraphrase and write your own post about the need for clean water around the world!
Encourage others to check back here every day starting next week to watch our progress and at the very end to total how much was raised for clean water charities.
Way to go Tammy!! I will gladly share this. I drink water all day and brew my own coffee at home too, so I'm like the little engine that could... I think I can!
ReplyDelete