BY KIRSTEN BRACKETT
For my second water walk, I walked down Pearl Street in Boulder, CO. Pearl Street is a lively place with blocks of shops, restaurants and street entertainers. I went on a Saturday afternoon, so there were tons of tourists and locals out enjoying their summer day.
My experience on Pearl Street was completely different than my experience at Washington Park. My parents, Katie and I all made signs to carry while I was walking. They said “1 in 8 lack access to clean water” and “Ask Me About Clean Water”
I wore two signs around my neck and my parents held the others while Katie handed out flyers. Katie also painted my jerry can to make me stand out even more!
This was a great success. People were answering the question on my sign and would applaud me as I walked by. Although I didn’t raise much money from this particular walk, I still feel like I made a difference. The first step of changing the world for the better is to spread awareness and put a scenario into someone’s head. Visually showing Americans what women all over the world have to do just to receive clean water is much more effective than just talking about the issue.
The walk was still very challenging, physically, and became even more of a challenge when people would walk slowly. If I wasn’t moving fast the water would begin to slosh around, causing me to lose my balance.
The irony that was going on around me was amazing. All the consumption of food and people blowing money on expensive materialistic items, while the reality is people in our world can’t even afford water. It was heartbreaking, but at the same time gave me motivation to make a change.
I completed another mile leaving me with a total of 2.7 miles completed. I felt much more accomplished after this walk because of all the awareness that I spread.
My third walk was just around the block in my neighborhood, since I only had .9 mi left and I was getting ready to leave for school. Although not many people saw me, for those who did I am sure I left an image in their heads. This walk was extremely hard because the weather was so hot. I can’t even imagine having to walk everyday in heat worse than what it was in Denver.
We are all guilty of having selfish habits, such as spending large amounts of money on something that we will probably just waste in a short period of time. Most likely we won’t even recycle it. Unfortunately, this is the culture we live in. Rather than changing your lifestyle completely, just try to be more aware about what you are doing. Open your eyes to what others are doing to help people. Find a way that you can sustainably make a difference in someone else’s life. We are never going to be in a perfect world, so we should at least focus on important factors of our future such as providing access to clean water to people around the world, which will then help women and children around the world receive an education, have a career, and enlighten our future.
Join me in changing the lives of people in Panama today at www.crowdrise.com/walkthewalktotalkthetalk
