After seeing a video showing people giving up their birthdays and doing fundraisers to support charity: water, our daughter Lauren decided she wanted to give up Christmas gifts to help others. We (Mark and Stephanie) decided to join her - including adding our Dec/Jan birthdays to the campaign.

Here's a message from charity: water we wanted to share:

Many of us have no idea what it's like to be thirsty. We have plenty of water to drink -- even the water in our toilets is clean.

But many people around the world don’t have that luxury. Every day, about 1,400 children die from diseases caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world.

Please donate to our campaign -- anything you can give will be greatly appreciated and is a huge help.

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.

Thank you in advance for your support of us - and more importantly - of all the future people who will benefit from your generosity!

Mark, Stephanie, and Lauren