My goals for this campaign:
To give 88 people access to clean water by June 1, 2019, and to raise awareness for the water crisis that affects 1 in 10 people.
To complete the Infinitus 88k (June 1, 2019), as well as a number of snowshoe and trail running races leading up to it in preparation.

My lifetime goal for charity: water:
To give 1000 people access to clean water.

With community support, my goal for this campaign is to raise $2,640 and give 88 people access to clean water by June 1, 2019, and for this I will complete the Infinitus 88k (54.7 miles) happening on that same date. I’m running this campaign through charity: water, a nonprofit organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries. This is a charity I fully believe in and for which I am a Spring member, meaning a reoccurring $30.00 donation is made every month so that 12 people can get clean water each year. I am drawn to this organization by their unique approach to charity, their transparency, and 100% model—private donors cover the operating costs, so 100% of each donation can directly fund clean water projects in the field.

I first learned of this organization and the water crisis through the book “Thirst,” by Scot Harrison, who is the founder and current CEO of charity: water. 663 million people, or nearly 1 in 10 people worldwide, live without clean water, and the diseases that arise from this kill more people every year than all forms of violence. “Thirst” describes Scott Harrison’s interactions with African communities that lack clean water, the struggle to create charity: water, and his vision of bringing clean water to everyone in the world. I was particularly moved by the stories of the women and children, who are often the ones most affected by this. In some isolated and rural areas, women and children need to walk for several miles each day on dangerous roads just to collect a few gallons of water for their whole family, often unclean or drawn from swamps.

One of the most moving stories was about an Ethiopian girl named Letikiros. Four days a week, she would strap a clay pot to her back and walk for several hours to the nearest spring. After waiting in line to collect about 5 gallons, she would head home and finally make it back by sunset. Late one day in May of 2000, she broke the jar and spilled a day’s worth of water for her family while returning home. She was so distraught over this that she hanged herself from a tree. Such acts of desperation might be hard for us to comprehend so far removed, but it highlights just how critical the situation is for so many people.

Aside from the prevention of diseases, access to clean water gives people the precious gift of time that would otherwise be spent collecting unclean water. In communities that acquire clean water, women and children are able to invest that time in starting their own businesses, growing food, going to school and getting an education, improving their homes, and spending time with families. This is why I fully believe in the work that charity: water is doing. The gift of clean water has an expansive effect that allows individuals to take charge of their own futures and struggling communities to be revitalized.

In selecting a challenge, I opted for one that was well beyond my current ability, but one that I thought I could complete after several months of focused and consistent training. While I have completed a number of long-distance hikes, at the time of writing this I have never run more than 3 consecutive 5ks over a period of a couple hours. I’m not a naturally gifted runner by any means, but I believe that as long as you put in the work and refuse to quit, you can achieve anything you dream up. I chose this challenge to prove to myself that I can trust myself—that I can trust myself to do the training and disciplines necessary, that I can trust myself to grow both physically and mentally. Most of us live lives of relative ease and will never experience real discomfort. I hope that by this I can begin to understand the struggle that others go through every day to get something that I take for granted. I hope to show that ordinary people are capable of achieving extraordinary things that can benefit the wider community.

My goal is to raise $2,640 for 88 people. I chose 88 people based on the 88k distance that I will hopefully be covering on the June 1 race, so 1km for each person (A donation of $30.00 is able to give one person the gift of clean water, so 88 people x $30.00 = $2,640). I realize this number is rather ambitious and might be beyond my hope, but then so might be my goal of completing an 88k 6 months from now.

Although my goal is to raise $30.00 every km for 88 people, any contribution helps and could be life-changing. One could alternatively sponsor me by contributing
5 cents per km - $4.40
10 cents per km - $8.80
25 cents per km - $22.00
50 cents per km - $44.00
$1.00 per km - $88.00
Of course, one could also help the campaign via moral support and encouragement, or simply by sharing this message to others.

Even if only 1 person gets access to clean water from this campaign, it will still be a success in my eyes--one person’s life could be so radically changed that it has a lasting, expansive impact on future generations and communities.

After the campaign is over, 100% of what is raised will be sent directly to the field, where it will be used in the most sustainable way for the specific community being helped (a well, filters, a system for harvesting rainwater, etc.). The donation is tracked, and information is reported back to us about the communities our contribution went to.

About the Infinitus 88k:

There is very little information out there concerning the details/topography of the course (and I think purposefully so). From what I’ve gathered, the Infinitus (Latin for boundless, infinite, without end, hence all the “8’s”) 88k trail race begins at 8:08am and has a 24-hour cutoff. The 88k is part of a larger series of races spanning several days, with options ranging from an 8k to 888k (seriously). The course is a series of looped trails in the Goshen wilderness and includes a number of climbs with significant gains in elevation, including Moosalamoo, Bloodroot, and Romance Mountains. The event is put on by the Endurance Society, a group that hosts a number of other challenges of mind and body throughout the year, including the Frigus 15k snowshoe race which I will be participating in February 23.
My goal is to finish before the cutoff.

About the name Sitis 88:
Sitis is Latin for “thirst,” – I chose it simply because I like Latin.

You can follow my training journey on Strava