{"id":6985,"date":"2017-09-22T16:57:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T20:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=6985"},"modified":"2017-09-25T08:18:48","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T12:18:48","slug":"students-help-provide-clean-drinking-water-third-world-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/students-help-provide-clean-drinking-water-third-world-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"Students help provide clean drinking water to third-world countries"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want to drink this water would you?\u201d Winter Vincent, a 9-year-old surfer from Australia asked an auditorium filled with Old Donation School (ODS) students as he held up a glass filled with what resembled globs of mud.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Serious replies of \u201cno, no, no\u201d echoed throughout the room.<\/p>\n

Vincent went on to share that as an avid surfer, he became passionate about a very important cause \u2013 working with an organization called Waves for Water<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> which raises awareness and funds to help purchase portable water filtration systems for people in third-world countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us can drink as much water as we want and I couldn\u2019t believe how many kids [in Indonesia] were dying each day just because their water was dirty,\u201d Vincent told the eagerly-listening students. \u201cThat really made me want to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, Vincent has helped 70,000 people through the organization and on Oct. 6 ODS students will also join the effort by hosting a \u201cSurf to School Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Students will don on their favorite surfer attire that day and bring in spare change which will be donated to the cause to purchase five-gallon water buckets equipped with water filtration systems that can provide water for up to 100 people.<\/p>\n

Principal Dr. Kelly Hedrick said the idea to help with this effort came from students.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo of our students, one in elementary and one in middle school, who are surfers happened upon another group of students who were doing a lemonade stand to benefit Waves for Water<\/em>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the students met, Hedrick received an email from the mother of one of the students, who was interested in bringing the program to ODS.<\/p>\n

Hedrick didn\u2019t hesitate to help because it fit right in with the school\u2019s service learning, which is an integral part of the curriculum and instruction at ODS. Sustainability<\/a> is also an important divisionwide initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that we focus on with all of our students is finding your passion and using your gifts and talents to also make a difference for others,\u201d she said. \u201cThe reason I wanted Winter to come was because at age nine he recognized his passion for surfing, identified a way in which he could make a difference doing what he loves to do, but impact people in a positive way. I can\u2019t think of a better model for children than to see someone who is their age doing exactly what we encourage them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students not only gave the assembly high marks but also asked insightful questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat inspired you to do this?\u201d one student asked.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vincent replied that he first learned about the cause during a big surfing competition he was attending. What made an impact with him was learning that one in five children in Indonesia die from drinking dirty water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really made me want to do something about it,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cDo you know why they have dirty water sources?\u201d another student at the assembly asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, Indonesia is so poor,\u201d Vincent shared. \u201cIt\u2019s a very small country and their only water source is rain. They don\u2019t have the money to buy these tanks so they collect water from rivers and streams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students also asked Vincent about how many children across the world he has helped thus far and what they can do to help.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ultimately, students understood that they can make a difference in the world.<\/p>\n

ODS student Serenity Lynch thought it was a \u201ccool assembly because you can filter water and it can help a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pictures that Vincent showed of himself helping people in Indonesia using the system also made an impact on fourth-grader Vivian Lea who described the pictures as \u201creally touching because they helped us learn about the people in Indonesia and their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

More importantly, she said, \u201cI think it\u2019s going to make a different in the lifestyle of third-world countries and their economy. That\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want to drink this water would you?\u201d Winter Vincent, a 9-year-old surfer from Australia asked an auditorium filled with Old Donation School (ODS) students as he held up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[146,102],"class_list":["post-6985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainable-schools","tag-old-donation-school","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6990,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6985\/revisions\/6990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}