Wantagh Seventh Graders Raise $2K For Clean Water

WANTAGH, NY — Wantagh students took a unit on clean water to heart this week, banding together to raise over $2,000 for clean water charities.

The fundraising effort started with an English unit with students reading Linda Sue Park’s “Long Walk To Water.” The book, district officials said, highlights the lack of access to clean water many people currently face in Sudan.

From there, students in Chistina Bewick and Anna Schiebelhuth’s classes got involved in trying to change that issue of access. The students got involved with the “Iron Giraffe Challenge,” a nonprofit effort to raise money for people facing water insecurity in South Sudan. The funds, the IGC says, are allocated not only to providing drinking water but to improving hygiene and sanitation in South Sudan.

In Wantagh, the fundraising took the form of a letter-writing campaign, wit students spending the month of February writing to their communities to ask for donations. The donations, district officials said, were accepted either digitally or by check.

There was also a raffle, with 28 teachers volunteering to be part of “shadow a teacher day.” As students bought raffle tickets for the chance to follow their teacher around, district officials said the total amount of money raised for clean water increased. At the end of the fundraiser, the total stood at $2,104 for Water for South Sudan, the nonprofit behind the Iron Giraffe Challenge. District officials said the funds will finance the drilling for access to clean water and education on how to use clean water for a multitude of purposes.

While the fundraiser has drawn to a close, there is still another possible chapter that could be added to its story: Wantagh was entered into a drawing that could score the school a visit from the author of “Long Walk to Water,” or the real individual on whom the book is based, an entry given to every school that raises at least $1,000 for the charity.