Water—how its existence or scarcity affects so much from economy to health to peace—is important to me.

UPDATE: The outpouring (pun intended) of support has been so great. Can we get access to 350 people?!

I’ve always been fascinated with how water is dispersed throughout the planet and how its existence—or lacking—affects so much from economy to health to peace. As a senior at Dartmouth, I wrote about water usage and pricing. On my honeymoon with Clancy in Tanzania and later on travels elsewhere in Africa and Asia, I watched as women and children spent hours of each day traveling by foot to find and carry water for their families. This is an important issue to me. And, hoping that I’m important to you, I wanted to ask you to take up this cause, too.

To mark my 40th birthday, I’m reaching out to special people in my life to raise awareness of the need to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations and to ask for help in bringing clean water to a community in the world.

I figured it I doubled my age and those of my two children and contributed that amount it would come to $100—enough to provide water for five people. Could you contribute a dollar for each of your years? Or double it? 100% of public donations directly fund water projects and about 18 months after this campaign ends, charity:water will show us where and how every dollar we raised ended up helping in the field.

Thanks so much for being a part of this.