I think I take a lot of things for granted, particularly how lucky we are in this country to turn on a faucet and have fresh water at our disposal. As my birthday is coming soon (and 28 is imminent - yikes!), I have decided to give my birthday up and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for $28 or more from everyone I know. It's not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater projects for people in developing nations. A billion people in the world are living without clean water - but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 30,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but still walk hours each day to get dirty water to give to their families.My birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don't need; it's to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion living without it. Please join me! (Because of charity: water's unique model, 100% of all donations go directly to direct water projects costs, and each donation is "proved" and tracked to the village it helped when projects are complete.)