MS Walk for Water featured in video news report

The Middle School’s 3rd annual Walk for Water raised at least three things this month.

First, it raised awareness of just how hard it is to carry six liters of water four miles. But it also raised money for a rain water harvesting charity helping out in Haiti and elsewhere in the developing world, and the profile of Greenhills School, as well.

It may even have raised a few blisters—but that’s another story.

More than 160 students and teachers took part in the walk,  which was featured in a video news story in The Ann Arbor News. The event started when students at Greenhills put three 2-liter bottles on their backs and set out for Parker Mill county park, four miles away.

Check out a Flickr photo album here.

The Walk for Water supports one of  the goals of 7th Grade science at Greenhills: helping students realize they’re global citizens whose actions can have a positive impact on the world. The heavily laden trek to Parker Mill helps students understand the burden many women and children face in the developing world, where, on average, they walk  four miles each day to get about six liters of clean water home to their families. Often, the quest for water is the reason girls leave school.

“For this one day, we experience what girls and women do every day in places like Africa where fresh water is scarce,” said science teacher Ann Novak, one of the organizers of the event. “We ultimately raise awareness with our students and families, and also money to donate to RainCatchers, and organization dedicated to getting rain harvesting and purification systems to people in need in the developing world

Students are still raising funds for RainCatchers. People interested in donating can  drop off a check at Greenhills with Novak or one of her two fellow faculty organizers, Media Specialist Jan Toth-Chernin or Diversity Director Nadine Hall.