To make a long-story short:

I’m asking you to donate $22 for my birthday to save lives by providing clean water. If we raise $5,000 by the end of the year, I’ll run a marathon (and you’ll get a shout out on my shirt).

To make a short-story long:

On November 22, I turn 22, but this year, I’m giving up my birthday.

No gifts. No cards. No cakes, pies, or presents.

All so that some of the 1 billion people in the world who don’t have access to clean water can have another chance to live.

And I need your help.

I’ve created a campaign at mycharitywater.org/jshirk. Will you donate $22 [or really, as much as you want to change lives and give people clean water to drink] to make this the best birthday ever?

And to sweeten the pot, I’ll run another marathon [which is pretty much the last thing on the planet I want to do] if we raise $5,000 by December 31, and you’ll get your name on the shirt I wear.

Here’s why:

In the United States, water is an afterthought. It’s everywhere. It’s clean. We can buy it by the ounce or by the gallon.

Our water isn’t contaminated. It’s available. It’s clean. It’s the purest of pure. Heck, some of us pay to import our water from Fiji because “it tastes better.”

In other parts of the world, people die every day because they have no clean water.

As in no clean water to drink, to cook, to shower. No clean water because their toilet is next to the watering hole. No plumbing, no flushing, no turning the tap on when you’re feeling parched. There is no clean water.
This isn’t hypothetical. This is real. This is not just statistics.

Scholastica in Kenya can’t go to school because she’s too sick to walk from the water she’s’ drinking.

Wilgens in Haiti probably won’t make it to his next birthday because of the cholera outbreak and lack of clean water.

And there are billions, yes billions, of others who need our help.

People are dying because they don’t have clean water. WATER.

They’re not dying because they don’t have iPads.

They’re not dying because they have to wait in the drive through line of McDonald’s.

They are dying because they don’t have something that we waste by the gallon.

Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease. Every. 20. Seconds. [As in five kids have died since you’ve been read this post.]

These statistics make me weep. I refuse to let people die because they don’t have something we take for granted.

If you…

• love me, donate.
• read this blog, donate.
• were going to send me a card, give the money to kids who need water instead of Hallmark and the Postal Service and donate.
• disagree with me on all levels and want to make me run a marathon that I don’t want to run to inflict pain on me, donate
• want to change lives, donate.

Will you donate?
WIll you join me?
Will you share this post?
Will you help me save lives?
Will you give up your birthday?
Will you skip Starbucks to give?
WIll you change the world with me?

If you want to get involved at a deeper level than donating [say be running with me], or help me sweeten the pot in some other way, shoot me an email at jshirkman [at] gmail [dot] com.