TLU Quest for Clean Water – 2nd Well! Thank you!

About the Campaign

Two years ago, Ed Scharlau came to Texas Lutheran University to speak about Water to Thrive in our chapel. Afterwards, two students, Amy Lees and Wako Bungula, got together with Tim Barr, the Director of the Center for Servant Leadership, and decided that TLU should start fundraising for a water well. One of the students, Wako, was actually from Ethiopia, and Amy had led a fundraiser and funded a well through her church some years before. After hearing about the group, Elisa Wellnitz joined as well because of her past history with Water to Thrive! And thus, along with a few other students, our first committee sprouted. That year, we planned and organized a Silent Auction and Benefit Dinner. The next year we re-grouped, added another student with W2T history, Chelsea Woodmancy, and had another Silent Auction and Benefit Dinner. Both years were great and fun, and a community formed between our university and Seguin. However, we still hadn’t reached our goal of funding a well that would change the lives of so many!
This year we came together with a new plan. We decided we needed to have many more smaller promotional events that would advocate awareness and allow the students, faculty, and staff to learn more about why we are trying so hard. We are now in the process of becoming a Texas Lutheran University recognized student organization, and spirits are rising. By the end of the year, we are hoping to build on what we started and raise the rest of the funds for a second well, that will support a healthy water supply for even more rural Ethiopians for 20 years!

This is where our campaign continues. Water to Thrive has brought awareness to our campus, about something so simple we hardly think about it: clean water! Water is so important, it can change a person’s life: from spending all day walking to bring home diseased water, to having enough time to start school. We are all people of this Earth, and being a global citizen means that we need to care for each other! We reached our goal and completed our first well. This additional campaign is our chance to double the blessings and have a lasting impact on these communities in need! Your help would be greatly appreciated for those suffering!