Dear Friends and Family,

For so many years now my birthday's have been about celebrating, hosting parties, and gifts. This year I am donating my birthday.

Don't get me wrong, I always have such a great time with all of my friends and family and enjoy all of your company and generous gifts. I realized though, I have SO much to be grateful for: Health, food, friends, a career, loved ones, safety, leisure, books, freedom, and - while we don't think of it much - easy access to clean water.

Water seems free & infinite, but the lack of reliable access to clean, safe, drinking water is flat-out destroying many developing nations. The lack of water leads to diseases, poor crops, and conflict over the few reliable sources.

Children who do have water often have to skip school to walk many miles to get the water for their family (dirty water at that...). Without water, other problems with education, equality, and peace cannot even start to be addressed.

Over 1 BILLION people don't have reliable access to clean water. That's three-times the population of the USA, or about 15% of the world's population.

Most big problems seem too big and too complicated for us to solve with an easy fix. But the solution for so many people to gain access to clean water is simple:

Dig a well.

We (as a society) know how to do it, we have the technology, and it only costs about $1 a year when you average all the costs out. But that dollar needs to come from somewhere - and right now, the families of Africa need it to come from you and I.

This year I'm donating my 35th birthday to Charity:Water, a non-profit organization that drills wells in Africa to provide water for those who need it most. My birthday wish is to reach the goal and raise $5,000 by Dec 1st so we can put in one well in Africa.

If we hit our target, we will fully fund the construction of a well that will provide water for 250 people for the next 20 years. Yes you read this correct, $5000 will provide water for 250 people for 20 (TWENTY) years!

I am asking you to please help make my birthday wish come true. The site auto populates to ask for a donation of $35 since I am turning 35 this year. Please do not feel obligated to make a donation this large. How much you donate doesn't really matter. A single donation of $1 will make a difference.

If you are not able to donate at this time then please at minimum keep these under developed countries (as well as the people here in the USA around the corner from us in need) in your thoughts and prayers. Every good thought and vibe of positive energy that we can send out there in the universe will come back to make a positive impact in one way or another.

Over 1 billion people in this world do not have access to clean water. I want to help them.

You can view the full details on my Charity website: http://mycharitywater.org/Peace_Love_Happiness

My birthday wish is to help with a solution. I can not fix the entire problem. But I can try to make a little difference and am asking for your help. The goal is to raise $5000 to build one well that will give 250 enough water for 20 years. Can you imagine? How great will it feel to know that we were able to help 250 people for the next 20 years!!!

Please click the link below and make a donation to help, it will mean a lot to me, and it will mean more to the people you help.

http://mycharitywater.org/Peace_Love_Happiness

Together we can do something phenomenal and truley have a reason to celebrate. I thank you for your support now and always. Best wishes to you and your family this year.

Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it. Act as if what you do makes a difference.. it does!

My love and appreciation goes out to all of you.

Monica

ps. Because of the way they do things, 100% of your donation to CharityWater will do directly to helping people. No management fees, none of that. Of course this is all tax deductable as well.