River Adventure Raises Awareness for Clean Water
Nursing professor finishes epic journey with daughter to raise awareness and funds for clean water in third-world countries.
How fitting that a 444-mile journey to raise awareness for clean water to people in need would end at a town called “Grace.”
Cedarville University nursing professor Pete Savard and his daughter Ainsley, 15, recently completed their 30-day stand-up paddling (#SUP4Water) journey on the Susquehanna River at Havre de Grace (harbor of grace), Maryland. Their journey’s aim? Demonstrate that clean water equipment can be transported to remote locations and to raise both awareness and support for the work of the Global Water Consortium (GWC).
They began at the Susquehanna’s headwaters at Lake Otsego, New York, near Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. They traveled through Binghamton, New York, where Savard spent some of his childhood, paddled through eastern Pennsylvania, including the state capital at Harrisburg, and kept going till they arrived at the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
Along the way, Savard garnered much attention for GWC during radio and TV interviews in the towns and cities where Ainsley and he traveled. In the summer of 2017, Savard traveled to Kadali, India, with a team of Cedarville professors and students to begin GWC’s first clean water initiative. The team installed a simple water filtration system at a children’s home, providing the ministry with clean water and the opportunity to sell water locally.
Savard hopes to bring clean water to other locations in India and also Kenya. The nonprofit organization is currently sponsored by 18 companies, including Wagner Subaru, Skratch Labs, SUPonthefly and Viqua.
To learn more, click here: Pete Savard's Journey for Clean Water.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 3,963 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and leading student satisfaction ratings. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.