I just wanted to take a minute to send out a heart-felt THANK YOU for those who helped us reach our “Walk4Water” goal a couple weeks ago (HERE). I wasn’t able to get the contact information for those who donated so generously to our fundraising goal (there was some sort of strange glitch in the system), but please know how grateful we are! Because of your donations and also some matching funds we were able to exceed that goal (even though that isn’t reflected on the fundraising page), and there are families who’s lives will change dramatically because of that clean water you helped provide.
My whole extended family took the goal of walking for water pretty seriously and walked/ran their hearts out, which was fun to be involved in through Marco Polo. My cute niece Eliza (who went to Africa with Family Humanitarian after we did), worked up a whole spreadsheet for everyone to track their miles and seeing footage of all the hikes up mountains (in Utah and Switzerland) and through bamboo forests (in Hawaii), down the streets of London with toddlers and a twin-pregnant belly in tow (Charity). Loved that everyone was pushing so hard to make a difference to move to get clean water for those in need.
We took walks every night to get our own miles in. (Walks during the day aren’t smart if you don’t want to sweat your whole guts out in these parts.)
Those walks mostly consisted of walking to and from the junior high school…to our favorite menacing tree Lu and I have to maneuver past when we ride our bikes:
One night Lucy decided on a whim to walk that whole mile with her eyes closed, using only her cane for guidance.
I was surprised at this, because she gets frustrated with her cane and usually shies away from anything that might indicate that she has any sort of disability. But she put that thing to good work and it was pretty amazing to watch how she can maneuver those curbs, pay attention to the sidewalk bumps near intersections, and to see her determination (her vision mobility teacher has taught her well!).
Later Claire told me she felt such a beautiful spirit as we were walking. I did too. It was all thick around us, everyone so happy.
It was a big night for this mother’s heart of mine.
One night Lucy and Claire rode the tandem as Grace and I ran/walked beside them (no, the biking didn’t count, but we were in a time crunch and it was just so good to be outside, all of us together).
Grateful for a week to bond together as a family, and also an extended family, walking every which way we could think of to make clean water a possibility. I’m posting this video again just because I love it:
Click HERE for the website if you feel compelled to help this great non-profit out with all the good they are doing. This is the link to our fundraising page, and the donations still go to the same cause even though the walk is over.
And THANK YOU again for the donations! xoxo
Love, Shawni
Where are the financials?