CHS participated in the Thirst Project, the World’s Leading Youth Water Activism Organization, for the first time Nov. 10 with the mission to end the water crisis and prepare the next generation of people to be socially aware of global issues.
According to ASB bookkeeper Diana Vita, for $20 students dined outside in the theater atrium area, while eating local gourmet dinner donated by local restaurants and served by the school staff. The “celebrity waiters” could earn extra tips by performing special tasks requested by the guests.
According to the Thirst Project, the organization began with the mission to end the water crisis and prepare the next generation of people to be socially aware and desire to solve major global issues such as this. With participation from thousands of students, the Thirst Project has raised over $8 million, bringing clean water to more than 280,000 people in 13 African countries.
According to CHS activities director Leigh Cambra, the student body global service project initiative had a focus on food and water. The Thirst Project was a perfect complement to This Bar Saves Lives, a campaign in which each bar sold gives a packet of life-saving nutrition to a hungry child.
The money raised for the Thirst Project is put towards building a well in a community that lacks sufficient drinking water. According to Vita, the gala was close to raising $3,000. The school does not get to choose which community the money is going to.
Vita, who grew up in Africa, knows that a lot of research goes into building a well. In order for the project to be executed, there needs to be infrastructure, people to care for the well and topographic area to build the well.
The school plans to repeat the gala next year, assuming that they will earn more money because the students will understand the tipping process and what the cause is.
“We take for granted that we have running water although we are in a drought, but people all over the world, specifically in Swaziland, have to carry these jerrycans full of muddy, contaminated water,” Cambra explains. “Water is something that we can all relate to.”
-Joyce Doherty
