CMC Magazine, Summer 2006

While teaching introductory and advanced biology at the Antoa Secondary School in Ghana last summer on a McKenna International Internship. Meredith Holt '07 realized her students were cutting their studies short in order to fetch water from a well every afternoon.

Located in the village near the school, the well was nearly a mile's walk from the student dormitories. And because it was the only working water source in that part of the village, waiting to pump water could take an hour or more, and then there was the mile-walk back home, with full buckets, heavy and burdensome in the remaining daylight hours.

Holt decided to take action. After inquiries and meetings with the headmaster, Holt and the administration decided that building a well next to the dormitories would enable Antoa's students to pursue their educations without channeling their energies into fetching water. Holt flew home with a goal to raise ,000 by July 2006 to fund a borehole—a long shaft in the earth with a strong submersible pump to push water to the surface.

Initially focusing on brochures to prospective donors, Holt's larger vision was to involve the CMC community. "This project is really about students helping other students," she says. "I wanted to give the CMC community, and especially my classmates, an opportunity to show how generous and compassionate a group we can be."

Holt teamed with the College's community service office (managed by Career Services) as well as Food for Thought—two student-run organizations on campus—to brainstorm potential activities and fund-raising. She struck gold with Peter Thum, a 1990 graduate of CMC and co-founder of Ethos Water, who visited campus as a guest of the Miriam Miner Cook Athenaeum. Read more about Thum: /news/cmcmagazine/2006summer/Ethos/

Holt and several members of Food for Thought approached the alumnus about donating water for a campus sale, with all proceeds benefiting the Antoa well project. Thum not only supported the pitch ("I was excited that students at CMC are getting involved in helping to address the world water crisis," he said), he supplied 1,200 bottles of Ethos to sell on campus. Coupled with the motivation to educate students about the current water crisis, the partnership delivered the College's first World Water Week in April, a combination of Ethos sales and water-themed social activities.

"We wanted the students to realize that not every person has the access to water that we have here at CMC," said Scott Eaton '08, one of the student chairs of the community service office. "We are privileged, and we should not only be thankful for that fact, but we also must make the conscious choice to help others who might not be so fortunate. It's challenging, but we feel as though the CMC community was up to the test."

Not only was CMC up to this test, World Water Week was deemed a success. In just the first 24 hours of tabling, 757 bottles of Ethos water were reserved, raising nearly ,500 for the Antoa well.

"The outpouring of support has been amazing," Holt says. "I'm confident that the CMC community will help me see this project through to the end."

Holt, who has since raised a total of ,450 for the new well, says she hopes Antoa students will benefit from the water source as early as fall.

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