For many, birthdays are an opportunity to celebrate with family, friends and gifts, but for Chris Denhart, his 20th birthday provided him with an opportunity to help supply a village with water.
Denhart, a sophomore studying economics and statistical mathematics, heard about charity: water when his friend Jordan Shirkman, a 2011 business administration graduate, pledged his 22nd birthday for the charity in 2010.
Charity: water is a nonprofit organization that works to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
Over the course of three months, Shirkman asked for donations through social media and personal connections to collect $5,004.
Collecting donations isn’t about personal connections because most of the information gets spread through friends of friends, Shirkman said.
Denhart donated to Shirkman’s pledge, and the idea for donating stuck with him.
“I had been thinking about pledging my birthday, and I was turning 20 on March 20,” Denhart said. “I figured it was too late, but my friend Sean Kwon urged me to do it so I figured there would be no better time than now.”
Kwon, a sophomore studying biochemistry at Oberlin College, said he didn’t do much to help Denhart make his decision.
“All I said was, ‘Dude, you should just do it,’ or something to that extent, because he seemed a bit hesitant as to whether or not it was too close to his birthday to start the project,” Kwon said. “The next day, he had already made a Facebook group, inviting many to ask for support.”
Denhart’s goal is to raise $2,500, which covers the cost of half of a well, by May 30. Thus far, he has raised $897.
Charity: water puts 100 percent of donations toward the transportation and building of the well, which played a role in his choosing to donate to the charity, Denhart said.
“It’s sad when you find out that a charity you support is using half of the money for their own funding, but all of charity: water is funded through private endowments,” he said.
Members of Better Together at Ohio University have also been raising money for charity: water, both individually and collectively. They have raised an estimated $1,500 of their $5,000 goal so far.
“I’m not sure if we are going to meet our goal exactly,” said Rachel Hyden, media liaison for Better Together and a senior studying public relations. “It’s not the end of the world if we don’t raise all $5,000 because the money we earn will merge with other donations.”
Both Denhart and Hyden agree that helping others has a great affect on students’ lives.
“I feel like any form of community service has a positive effect on your life that you don’t expect,” Denhart said. “We have so much for ourselves that we can give up some things to change the life of someone else.“
ao007510@ohiou.edu
