Denver women raise money for clean water.

This month's LIVE without challenge is 'clutter.'

This past Friday and Saturday, a group of women in the Denver area held a very successful 'LIVE without clutter' sale.*

Many thanks to Jen, Linda, Jodi, Tiffany and all the other volunteers who came together to make this sale happen.  

Because of these generous and hard working ladies, more than 30 people will now have access to clean water! 

*Want to hold your own LIVE without clutter sale?  Let us know, and we would be more than happy to provide guidance and Water for Christmas print materials to help with your sale.

Give water....get a book!

We were honored to have the opportunity to help sponsor the book Clean Water for Elirose during a recent Kickstarter campaign. 

Needless to say, we were extremely excited when this box of books arrived in the mail:

 

And now, we are passing the opportunity on to you to own your very own copy of Clean Water for Elirose!

Here's the deal...it's pretty simple.

Make a donation of $20 or more (just $20 can provide one person clean water for 20 years), and we will send you a copy of Clean Water for Elirose.* 

These books are a fantastic teaching tool for children. Whether in the classroom or at home, 'Clean Water for Elirose provides a tangible, concrete way for parents and teachers to educate young children about the difficult circumstances many children face in other parts of the world.'

 

So what are you waiting for?  Go!  Make your donation, and then simply leave a comment here, or on our facebook page so we can contact you regarding where to ship your book.

* all money goes through and directly to charity: water -- a trusted and highly rated non-profit organization which moves quickly and efficiently to build sustainable clean water projects around the world. Our particular partnership directly contributes to the building and maintenance of clean water wells in Liberia, West Africa

Live without 'clutter'

LIVE without 'entertainment' will be wrapping up this week as June quickly comes to a close.

If you participated in this month's challenge, please don't forget to tally up what you lived without and make your donation here.

Looking ahead to July:

We were inspired when we heard from a group of women in Denver, CO who are preparing to hold a 'LIVE without' community garage sale (July , to raise money for clean water.*

This got us thinking; why don't we encourage each other to live without 'clutter' for the month of July?!

We all probably have things we don't need cluttering our rooms, closets, garages etc.  So why not declutter, and help give clean water at the same time?!

So how can you help?

Rally your friends and neighbors, and hold your own 'LIVE without clutter' garage sale during the month of July.
Raise additional funds for clean water by encouraging your children to set-up a bake sale or lemonade stand at the garage sale.

If holding a garage sale is not an option, consider selling some items on Craigslist or ebay and donate that money to water.  You'll be surprised at what you can get for the items sitting around your home collecting dust!

To date, the LIVE without campaign has raised almost $2000 for clean water projects,
and we are determined to hit the $5000 mark by the end of our last challenge.

 Help us make July the biggest LIVE without month yet!  Please consider joining us, and let's see how many people we can help provide clean water to by living without 'clutter.' 

 *if you live in the Denver area and have any items you would like to donate to the LIVE without clutter community garage sale, please email us at water_team@water4christmas.com.                               

UPDATE: 'Christmas In July' etsy sale

**The Water for Christmas, 'Christmas in July' etsy sale has been postponed.**

 In order to continue focusing our full efforts on the LIVE without campaign throughout the summer and into the fall, we have decided to postpone our 'Christmas in July' etsy sale.

For those who had graciously offered to donate items for our 'Christmas in July' sale are still welcomed to do so for our annual Christmas sale.

  In past years, the Christmas etsy sales have been a great success; raising over $10,000 for clean water projects in West Africa!
This year, the Water for Christmas etsy shop will be opening on Friday, November 28th for our annual Christmas sale...so mark your calendars!

The key to growing our etsy shop is continuing to receive amazing and creative donations from our generous supporters...you!!

If you are interested in making a donation to the Water for Christmas etsy shop, you can do so by filling out this form.  Also, please feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who may be interested in donating items.


Thank you! 

Why water?

Because we find the following statistics unacceptable: 

*NEARLY 1 BILLION PEOPLE LACK ACCESS TO SAFE WATER.

*EVERY 20 SECONDS, A CHILD DIES FROM A WATER-RELATED DISEASE.

*ABOUT 80% OF SEWAGE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IS DISCHARGED UNTREATED.

*MORE PEOPLE HAVE CELL PHONES THAN ACCESS TO A DECENT TOILET.

*3.6 MILLION PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR FROM WATER-RELATED DISEASES.

*LESS THAN 1% OF THE WORLD'S FRESH WATER IS READILY ACCESSIBLE FOR DIRECT HUMAN USE.   

*MILLIONS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN SPEND SEVERAL HOURS A DAY COLLECTING WATER FROM DISTANT, OFTEN POLLUTED SOURCES.
(statistics courtesy of water.org) 

Month 3.

Hard to believe June has arrived.  Not quite sure where the month of May went; it seemed to have flown by in a flash, though!

Thanks so much to all of you who donated last month; and many thanks to those of you who are just now joining us to 'live without' in order to help provide clean water to those truly living without.

June is already in full swing, and so is a new LIVE without challenge!

 

This month we are encouraging each other to live without 'entertainment.'

 

We have to admit, it was quite convicting as we discussed the countless ways and things we could live without this month.

Entertainment is a broad category.  Here are just a few of the items we came up with that fall into the entertainment category:

Movies

Music (CD's/downloads, concerts etc.)

Gaming (video, online, phone games)

Theater productions

Amusement parks

Monthly subscriptions (netflix, movie channels, magazines)

And the list goes on and on. 

Keep in mind, these are just ideas to get you thinking of how this month's challenge may apply to your life.

As with all of the LIVE without challenges, we encourage you to take this challenge and make it personal and relevant to your life.  

Richard Stearns sums it up, quite perfectly, with this quote:

"I can imagine my own life without many of the so-called necessities that I have. You can take away my car and I would find a way to compensate by using public transportation and carpooling with a friend. You could take away my computer and my Internet access, my television, stereo and radio, and I could still have a full and prosperous life. You could reduce the size of my house and my income in half, and even take away my education and I could survive and perhaps thrive. But if you take away water and sanitation, you take away my health and that of my children. If you take away my health, you have taken away my energy and my industry. If you take away my energy and my ability to support my family, you have taken away my dignity; and if you take away my dignity, you have taken away hope—for the future, for my children, for a better life. This is the harsh reality of more than one billion people in the world who live without access to clean, safe water."

Let's see what we can do together this month to help ease the burden of the one billion thirsty currently living without access to clean and safe water.  

Join us.  LIVE without.

New month, new challenge!

May is here!   And with it, comes a new LIVE without challenge.

But before we talk about the new challenge,  we would like to thank all of you who joined us in participating in April's challenge!  Also, a big 'thank-you' to those of you who shared your LIVE without stories this past month.  We encourage you to continue sharing your LIVE without stories with us here and on our facebook page.

If you participated in April's challenge, please head over to our donate page to make your end-of-the-month donation.  All donations go securely through, and directly to, donations go securely through, and directly to, charity: water--and your donation is 100% tax deductible.

As our first challenge comes to a close, we are excited to kick-off a new challenge for the month of May, lunching out.

For this challenge, we are encouraging each other to pass up that lunch-time burger and fries, soup and salad, burrito and chips etc.; and instead, donate that money to help provide someone with clean water. 

Get involved in the challenge; and please help us continue to spread the word by encouraging others to get involved too!! 

 

Tell your friends what you are doing and why--and then encourage them to join with you.  'Brown-bag your lunch at the office and challenge your co-workers to do the same.   Skip that weekly restaurant 'lunch-date' with a friend and have a picnic lunch instead.  It's amazing how these little things we do each day, week, or month, really add up over time, and to think it only takes $20 to provide someone with life-saving water for around 20 years! 

If 'lunching out' is not something you really do...no problem!  Please feel free to replace 'lunching out' for your own live without item.  We encourage you to give this entire campaign meaning by making each monthly challenge personal to you and relevant to your life. 

Please visit our LIVE without page for more information on the challenge, along with some great tools to help you get involved and spread the word.

Also, please don't forget to jump on over to Facebook and 'like' the LIVE without page.  We would love to hear your comments on our Facebook page regarding what you are living without each month, and how the challenge is impacting your life and those around you.

Thank you for your participation in this campaign and for your continued support!