Fair Lawn Liquor Store's Network Taking Part in Clean Water Campaign

The WineMasters retail wine consortium—whose network includes of Fair Lawn—has partnered with Moorestown, NJ-based clean water charity A Drink for Tomorrow (ADFT) to create "the largest fundraising campaign in ADFT’s history," according to a press release.

During a monthlong “Turn Wine to Water” campaign—which started on World Water Day (Tuesday) and extends through Earth Day, April 22—WineMasters will donate $1 per bottle of wine sold through its website and its network of nearly 40 wine retailers to ADFT.

“The goal of this effort is to turn our recreational wine consumption into a source of clean drinking water for the nearly 884 million people who suffer every day from a global clean water shortage,” WineMasters co-founder Kevin Roche said in a statement. “We have no doubt that our member retailers and loyal customers will do their part to make this fundraising effort a success.”

Founded in 2004 by certified sommeliers and New Jersey store owners Kevin Roche and Jim Treanor, WineMasters offers a portfolio of over 200 endorsed wines, ranging in price from $6.98 to $200 per bottle.

Through its “Turn Wine to Water” program, ADFT works to raise both awareness of the global lack of access to clean water, affecting one in eight people worldwide, and funds to develop potable water projects in communities around the world. ADFT projects focus on areas of the world including Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.

Over the past two years, ADFT funds have financed the construction of a dug-well in India that brings arsenic free water to 140 people; a 100 foot deep well in Botswana, Africa that brings clean water to a village of 400; a rain water harvesting system that brings clean water to an orphanage in Lesotho, Africa; a well rehabilitation in Sierra Leone which restored safe water access to a community health post which serves 300-500 people daily, but previously had no reliable access to clean water; a well rehabilitation in Haiti; and a rehabilitation of latrines and addition of hand washing stations in three elementary schools in Guatemala that will directly benefit 358 students and 14 teachers, and indirectly assist 225 families. Each of these projects will bring these communities clean water for approximately 20 to 30 years.

“The WineMasters network has both the reputation and the reach to bring tremendous momentum to our ‘Turn Water to Wine’ program,” ADFT founder Stephanie Weaver said in a statement. “A typical well costs between $4K and $6K to build, and it is our hope that this partnership will generate enough funds to bring clean water to at least two new communities in 2011.”

Editor's Note: The press release above was compiled by Regan Communications