Hello Everyone! September 28th will be my 29th Birthday. And this year I wanted to do something I’ve never done.

Most of you know my family as well as Emily’s family. And we are both very lucky to have such amazing families and friends. We are both truly lucky to grow up with great support groups and great people around us. We are also lucky enough to be able to grow our own family, with a little one on the way due October 31st. I would put both of us in the privileged category. We are both truly grateful for that. Our parents and brothers (as well as extended family and friends) always supported us in everything we do, were at all of our sporting events, and were always willing to give us gifts, especially for our birthdays.

This year I want my birthday to be a little different. There are a lot of people in this world that are in a lot more need than I am, with some of them that don’t not have the basic necessities of food, shelter, and especially clean drinking water.

That’s where my birthday comes in and I need your help!

I was listening to the Bill Simmons’ Podcast on my way to work one morning and it had on a guy by the name of Scott Harrison. And it blew me away. He told his story about overcoming addiction and generally not being a very good person, and about him dropping everything to start a charity called Charity: Water. Charity: Water is a charity that gets donations, and uses 100% of those donations to build wells in areas that do not have ANY clean water. And when I mean no clean water, I mean it is muddy brown, full of disease, and deadly water. Dirty water kills more people throughout the world than ALL forms of violence. And women in these villages walk up to 8 hours per day to get this dirty water. Charity: Water has already helped 6.3 million people get clean water. I included a link at the bottom to watch a video to learn more about Charity: Water. I also included the link to the Podcast that gave me the idea (it is worth the 1-hour listen).

This year for my birthday I want to raise money for Charity: Water.

I am asking anyone willing to donate, to donate $29 dollars to my campaign for my 29th birthday. If you donate $29 you will allow 1 person to have clean drinking water. The goal is to raise $1,500. Emily and I are starting the donations with $50. The link to donate is at the bottom of this post. When you donate, Charity: Water shows you EXACTLY where your money goes. They send you a pinpoint on a map in your email to show where it is going, as well as photos of the project.

Also, as a bonus I will be doing 1 burpee for every dollar that is donated. So anyone that wants to see me suffer a little bit, this is your way to do it!
Thank you everyone for reading and we hope to help some people in need!

https://my.charitywater.org/zack-schaefer/zack-s-birthday

https://www.charitywater.org/whywater/

https://soundcloud.com/the-bill-simmons-podcast/ep-101-scott-harrison