Water 1st International

Over 400 people walk for water at inaugural CARRY 5 event, raising $54,000

Our first annual CARRY 5 event was a great success. Over 400 children, adults, schools, businesses, and clubs were able to gain a first-hand understanding of the true burden of gathering water, and raise money to help end this long walk for so many around the world.

The event was held at Seattle's Seward Park on Saturday, May 31st. Individual and team participants tried to carry 5 gallons of water for 5 kilometers along Lake Washington Blvd, the average walk made by people in poor countries who lack access to safe, convenient water supplies.

CARRY 5 participants raised $54,000 both online and offline to support the work of Water 1st in Honduras, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and India. This is enough funding for 1,000 people to have safe, convenient water supplies and a toilet. Those 1,000 people will never have to make a walk to a river or water hole again.

Participants raising $50 or more were given a CARRY 5 t-shirt.

Water 1st supporter Jill Jago emceed the event and recognized the following people for their outstanding fundraising efforts:

Top-5 Individual Fundraisers

Lorraine Rimson
Nancy Carroll
Amanda Callies
Sophia Copeland
Charmaine Eftekhari

Top-5 Fundraising Teams

Team Bandee
Team Red
Tizita & Fekadu's Team
Carry 5 Team
JPE Soldiers

Team with the Most Walkers: Team Diane

We also want to recognize Nancy Chang. Nancy was a student at UW last year, taking a class in the Evans School from one of our Advisory Council members, Mary Kay Gugerty. After learning about the water crisis from a presentation we made in her class, Nancy came up with the CARRY 5 idea and presented it to Water 1st. We immediately loved the idea and the name and want to thank Nancy for partnering with us at this inaugural CARRY 5 event.

Thank you to everyone who participated from Water 1st

Thank you everyone for joining us at our inaugural CARRY 5 event. We are so grateful to all of you for joining us and walking in solidarity with the millions of people around the world, especially women and girls, who live in extreme poverty and make daily walks to find the water that keeps their families alive. And when we visit those communities, we will tell the community members what you did, and we'll show them photos so they can see how much you care about them. Beyond the funds that you have raised to support their water projects, we know they will be thankful simply for your care and concern about their lives.

Living here in Seattle, it can be hard to relate to the experiences of people living in poverty. However, when it comes down to it, we all want to work hard to create a better life for ourselves and our children. Thank you for participating in this event and trying to understand what its like to carry water, and for giving mothers and fathers the ability to create a better life for their children, and their children's children and beyond.

The world water crisis does not exist because there is not enough water on Earth, or enough money on Earth. We have the resources right now to meet the basic needs of everyone. But it will take each of us contributing what we can, doing what we can to make a change, to end the daily walk for water.

Also, for those who attended, the girl who was lost (not related to the Water 1st event) was found and is fine. Thank you for your cooperation with the police department who were finally able to locate her.