In September, 2011 I first donated to Charity: Water for a random person's birthday after watching an incredible video that captured my heart and reflected the integrity of the mission and organization... the feeling in my body was unexplainable. I knew I wanted to hold a campaign for my own birthday the next year... but I almost forgot.

About a week before my birthday in 2012, I remembered about the charity and went into high gear filled with adrenaline because I KNEW I needed to make this happen as quickly as possible... I remember the moment vividly. I was at work and actually scared my co-worker with how much power and energy I started generating at the thought of only having a week to raise money... then my phone rang on my desk and it was Melanie Amsden and I was so hyper like "I'm SO glad you called because I forgot about my charity and I need to do it like RIGHT NOW!!!" and she says, "well that's actually why I'm calling"... I was like "Whoa... are you psychic?" and she says "Your co-worker text me, so I'm calling to let you know that I realized about a month ago that you had forgotten, so I created a charity for you as a birthday gift and we've already raised money and we were going to surprise you next week."

I immediately started crying (and I'm crying now even writing this as all of those feelings come rushing back). I felt deeply loved and supported. That campaign raised money for a water well in Africa and, once again, I felt a deep connection to humans on the other side of the earth.

I did it again in 2014 and we contributed to a water well in May Laelay Dur Community, Ethiopia. There is nothing like the feeling of getting the email updates for the water well you contributed towards and especially the video of the first time water comes out of the well and into the community. The fact that there is clean drinking water under the earth where people are living, but not able to access it due to limited resources blows my mind. We are a rich species and we have the tools and means to make this happen for all of mankind... and this specific cause calls to me.

Who knows, maybe one day I'll take this urge a step further and volunteer in some capacity for this incredibly, heart-based charity... This year though, I'll offer what I can... by having another fund-raiser for my birthday. Whether a donation is $2 or $200, anything is appreciated... whatever we donate in will become a part of something bigger.

100% of the money will be used to build clean water projects, and when they’re complete, charity: water will send us photos and GPS coordinates so we can see the exact community we helped.