Montlake Elementary students and Water 1st's Ann Hollar at the Penny Harvest Youth Summit. Montlake again selected Water 1st as a recipient of $545 (their largest gift) of their Penny Harvest funds!
If you ever need hope that world is in safe hands, then my advice is to be in touch with young people.
I have spent the past week being interviewed by students of Seattle Girls School working on Pay-It-Forward projects and by a Penny Harvest Board of Students trying to determine how they are going to give away the money that their school has raised.
First about the Seattle Girls School. Here is a summary of their interview with me.
Q: What are the root causes of the water crisis?
A: I answered that poverty was one of the root causes. People, cities, countries that are impoverished don’t have a voice, don’t have the time or wherewithal to be lobbying local governments getting them to address their most basic problems. I said that is where we all come in. We can be the voice for families aren’t being heard.
Q: How we engage our beneficiary communities?
A: We do that well and it is such an essential component of creating sustainable solutions. I always ask students, what if your teacher said, “Friday is a free day, and here is what we are going to do” or “Friday is a free day, and I would like your input on what we do.” Which sounds more appealing? The answer is inevitably “The second one!” People around the world are no different, we all want to be included in the solution and therefore feel ownership of the outcome. Kids get that!
Q: What obstacles does Water 1st face?
A: I did have a bit harder time with that one. I ended up saying the hard part and the rewarding part is getting as many people as we can to care about the issue and to want to take action.
Q: The last question was the easiest. Why do I do what I do?
A: I do what I do because I get inspiration talking with students. They care, they get it, they are open-minded and they can make things happen! I also do what I do because I believe if we all give a little, we can make such a tremendous difference in the lives of girls, women, families, and communities that are in such need.
Students attending the Penny Harvest Youth Summit try to lift containers of water at the Water 1st booth.
Now for Penny Harvest. What a fabulous idea that organization is. Teaching kids how to be thoughtful philanthropists by having them engage their school to bring in pennies, then they interview a number of non-profits, decide whom they want to give money to, and allocate accordingly. Water 1st was fortunate to get a grant from the students of Montlake Elementary in Seattle last year. Because of that grant we were invited to attend the Penny Harvest Youth Summit hosted at the University of Washington. They collected 9 TONS of pennies!
Students stopped by our booth, picked up 5 gallons of water (heavy!) and again asked many thoughtful questions. There were many organizations at the summit and I kept thinking we are so fortunate that our kids are being raised to feel compassionately about a variety of great causes and that many of them are choosing Water 1st.
We just received word this week that Montlake again selected Water 1st as a recipient of $545 - their largest gift - from their school Penny Harvest Campaign.
Thank you, Montlake!
I’d love to meet your students! If you are interested in having me come speak at your Seattle area school, please contact us at info@water1st.org. If you are outside the Seattle area, we have materials we can send to you, including a DVD showing the water crisis in Ethiopia, or you can download from our website here.
Ann Hollar, Water 1st Education Outreach
