UPDATE: This has been awesome. I can't believe that we reached this goal. I would have never have imagined this would be possible. Thank you for all your support!

AUSTIN HIGH SCHOOL: Also we did have a campaign for charity: water at our high school and I believe I can say we raised enough for a well! ($5,000) Pretty awesome stuff, I'm hoping with family, friends and random people online we can build a second!

INTRO TO CAMPAIGN:
All of my birthdays have always been about stuff. Stuff I don't want, stuff I definitely don't need. And to be honest, stuff that I hardly use.

So this year, I'm giving my birthday up.

On January 10th, 2011, I'm turning 18 years old, and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for $1.80, $18, $180 or whatever you can give from everyone I know. For my 18th birthday I want to make a difference. It's not going to me, though. All of it is going to build freshwater wells for people in developing nations.

A billion people in the world are living without clean water - but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 45,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but they still walk hours each day to get dirty water to give to their families.

My birthday wish this year is not for more gifts I don't need; it's to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year.

Please join me.

please note: Because of charity: water's unique model, 100% of all donations go directly to direct water projects costs, and each donation is "proved" and tracked to the village it helped when projects are complete.