So we just got this e-mail from Ashley Benevidez from Missouri State University.

To whom it may concern,

My name is Ashley Benavidez and this past spring Semester I was an RA (Resident Assistant) at Missouri State University. (I recently graduated last week) Over Christmas break I heard about Drop in the Bucket and want to make it my community service program for the semester. Upon returning to school in January I talked to Katie Halsey, another RA, and we decided that we would work together to raise money for Drop in the Bucket.

The first fundraising event Katie and I decided to do was to have a campus wide residence hall competition to help raise money. Flyers were made for every floor, in every building, big posters were hung in the lobby and a donation container was placed at every desk. This event started in mid February and ended at the beginning of April. The fundraiser raised over $200 and the building that raised the most got an ice cream social paid for by Sodexo our dining services.

The next step was to set up a Skip-A-Meal night on April 28th with Sodexo. The night entailed students coming to the dining centers, swiping their cards and walking away. This was supposed to help people/students to understand what it felt like to go without something. In the end over 500 students skipped a meal, helping us raise $500 which Sodexo donated towards Drop in the Bucket.

For Katie and I $700 was not enough so we partnered once again with Sodexo for a cookie sale. Sodexo bought Otis Spunkmeyer cookies that were designed by a Make-A-Wish kid (by buying these cookies a portion of the money spent went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation) and baked them for Katie and I to sell to raise more money for Drop in the Bucket. After several days of the cookie sale Katie and I raised $200.

Between Katie and I, and with the help of Sodexo we have raised a total of $900 which is enclosed. All three involved really believe in Drop in the Bucket and are very happy to have been able to help in the efforts of bringing clean water to those in need.

We wish Drop in the Bucket the best of luck in the future.

Sincerely,

Ashley Benavidez

Wow Ashley, Katie and Sodexo, Thank You all so much all of your hrd work is greatly appreciated and will be used to help fund the work we are doing at Gulu High School.

Happy New Year everyone, this morning we received this e-mail from James, our head driller in Mozambique. James is in charge of the drilling at the Cilubyane Primary School in Mozambique, which is in the same area as our Maguezane well. The terrain is very high and rocky so drilling there is never as easy as other areas.

Hi Stacey,

Please find attached pictures related to the well drilling at Chilubyane School. You will find the first group of local men coming to witness the drilling operation, they are pointing at their current water source, a 7 meters deep hand dug well, producing very little amount of water per day, not even sufficient for the students.

Chilubyane workers

Next you will see the LS 200 operated by our two trained workers with their helpers, and next you will see the students who eventually were asked to come in during their school holidays and help with cleaning the school yard and fields.

Chilubyane kids helping

In this last picture, you will see the refurbishing of machine swivel, (the piece in Blue) and also the way we had to modify a stone grinding bit from a different type of drilling machine to drill through dense rock, we adapted it to work on an LS 200 rig. After this modification we were able to drill from 16.00 to 19.50 meters deep into the rock successfully without damaging our machine, which up to now it is operational.

Caireesa Barry is the founder of the Interact Club from the Maranatha High School in Pasadena, CA. She also just graduated from this High School. Last year Caireesa contacted Drop in the Bucket about raising the funds for a well in Africa. On June 11th 2009, she got to realize her vision when the MHS Interact Club presented Drop in the Bucket with a check to fund a water well for a school in Uganda.

It took a lot of hard work and determination as the students spearheaded by Caireesa began fundraising. They sold personalized water bottles, baked cookies, held bake sales and numerous other creative fundraiser events besides wrapping her waterbottles with free holiday wrap and gift cards. Then for St. Patrick’s Day they sold handmade green four leaf clover hair garlands with flowing ribbons, baked dozens and dozens of homemade cookies with all green M+M’s and sold “7 sayings of St. Patrick’s Day” buttons. The event was “Buy something GREEN to make African water CLEAN”

Their inventiveness and creativity will now provide a water well to the 1231 people of the Kabulamuliro parish in the Mubende District of Uganda.

The Second Annual Fundraiser for Drop in the Bucket took place at the beautiful “Rise at the Highlands” supper club in Hollywood on December 2nd, 2008. The venue was beautiful and the amazingly generous Mike from Fourth Dimension Events hooked us up with the red carpet, step and repeat and a whole host of other things. Tod from the Highlands exceeded his extreme generosity from last year by not only providing us with this fantastic venue, but also helping us out with so many other things that enabled us to even have a fundraiser. We were graced with the presence of the entire cast of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, including Ty Pennington who introduced our Guest Host/Speaker for the evening- the incomparable Henry Rollins.

From our first conversations with Henry, we were blown away by how much he already knew about Africa and the water situation there. Henry’s passion, knowledge and commitment to the subject of water rights was absolutely incredible and we all consider ourselves lucky that he agreed to help us out with his presence and speaking. We also featured an extremely touching video from a 6 year old girl from the US that had raised $1000 to help children in Africa, Dep Tuany, talking about his personal experiences as a refugee and about how water has effected his life amongst other things. Next up was Gil Garcetti, who showed photos from his book “Water is Key: a Better Future for Africa” and talked about the circumstances surrounding taking the photos and about how much clean water can make a difference in saving lives.

The generous donations from the invited guests plus the proceeds from the art auction, along with the beaded jewelry that we picked up at one of the IDP camps in Gulu helped raise just over $70,000 which we will use to fund our upcoming projects in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia. As of right now we have five drilling crews working on wells, rainwater harvesting projects, percussion drilling, filtration systems and complete water & sanitation systems in four different countries. We are also trying out our first experimental micro-finance project in one area of Uganda. Of course none of this would be possible without the continued support of our amazing and generous donors. Wishing all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009. Thank You all so much for your generosity and kindness.