I've never had a bad birthday. From the time I was little, I always had a cake, and parties, and friends, and fun on my birthday. But looking back, birthdays were always "all about me". What did I want to do, who did I want to be there, what did I want to get...and I'm finally old enough to realize that no matter how wonderful the memories, none of those birthdays brought anything positive and concrete to the world past September 17th.

So this year, I'm giving my birthday up.

I'm turning 24 years old, and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for $24, or more, from everyone I know. Don't worry, none of it's going to me! All of it is going to build freshwater wells for people in developing nations. Seth and I have been following the work of this charity for a while now and we are SO excited to become more involved in their exciting mission to bring clean water to the world.

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. 45,000 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.

I am so thankful for family and friends that want to honor me on my birthday, but my birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don't need. My wish is to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year.

Please join me.

please note: 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.