Haiti Relief Fund

Safe Water Science has partnered with Children's Safe Drinking water to provide PUR Purifier of Water to victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Look for Safe Water Science's Haiti Relief Fund money collection containers at retailers around Cincinnati. For more information on how you can participate in Safe Water Science's Haiti Relief Fund, email Martha Brosz.

If you'd like to donate now, visit the Children's Safe Drinking Water website and click on the "Donate" link in the lower right corner of the screen.

Cincinnati State Students, Faculty Reach Beyond Borders

Cincinnati State faculty, staff and students have been taking their Safe Water for Africa program on the road – with impressive results.

The student group Beyond Borders -- with support from faculty member Martha Brosz (who regularly offers lessons on global drinking water issues) and from recent graduate Cara Dyne (who is now employed in the Upward Bound program at Cincinnati State) -- has been visiting high schools in the region, demonstrating simple, inexpensive water purification techniques.

Many of the schools have responded with fund-raising campaigns to purchase water purification kits that are sent to Africa, particularly to war-torn Zimbabwe.

One school that took the message to heart was Edgewood High School in Trenton, Ohio. There, after a demonstration of water purification techniques by a Cincinnati State delegation, students organized a “Penny Wars’’ game between classes. The freshman class won, and got a free cookout for lunch as a reward. The Edgewood students raised $2,378, which they presented to Brosz and Dyne during a recent ceremony at the school.

The Edgewood students are also in the process of contacting Oprah Winfrey, in hopes of garnering more publicity for the clean water initiative in Africa.

ABOUT CINCINNATI STATE

Cincinnati State offers more than 75 associate degree and 40 certificate programs in business technologies, health and public safety, engineering technologies, humanities and sciences and information technologies. About 8,700 students are enrolled in the spring 2009 term; last year more than 16,000 separate students participated in credit and non-credit classes. Cincinnati State has the largest co-op program among two-year colleges in the U.S.

The Little Miami Penny Warriors

Little Miami High School junior, Andrew Waits, visited the Little Miami Kindergarten Annex on Dec. 6 to demonstrate how PUR tablets can make drinking water safe for families in Central America who do not have access to clean water. This project was initiated and led by Andrew Waits in conjunction with other students in the High School’s Spanish National Honor Society. Waits joined with Procter and Gamble’s "Children's Safe Drinking Water" program, to raise money to send PUR water packets to families in Central America.

A “Penny War” was conducted in the Kindergarten building, which raised $809.81 in only two weeks!  After a bake sale at the High School and other contributions, the total donations raised equaled $1,272.09. This is enough money to purify over 30,000 gallons of water for unfortunate families in developing countries! The top two winning classes raised approximately $150 each and were rewarded with a popcorn party in their classrooms on January 11, 2008.

Winning Kindergarten Class: Mrs. Ison ($150.42)

Second Place Kindergarten Class: Mrs. Edwards ($146.33)

National Chemistry Week At The Oakley Library

Kids got a chance to see chemistry in action when Martha Brosz and Mary Repaske, professors at Cincinnati State and members of Safe Water Science, brought several interactive experiments to the Oakley Branch Library in honor of Chemistry Week.

Mary Repaske, a professor at Cincinnati State and a member of the Safe Water Science group, brought several interactive experiments to the Oakley branch library on Oct.22 in honor of chemistry week.

A Lesson In Clean Water

GIRLS GATHER FUNDS TO SEND P&G'S PURIFIER OVERSEAS
By Cindy Kranz

AMELIA - A group of Amelia Middle School eighth-grade girls stirred a stew of brown water, mud, dirt, sticks and grass.

That stew would be drinking water in African countries and other Third World nations, except it would be further tainted with human and animal wastes.

But the students have added a packet of PUR, a product developed by Procter & Gamble to purify dirty water.

In less than a half hour, the brown water has turned clear and good enough to drink. Using a paper towel to strain out sticks and grass, they poured the water into a glass.

"It still has a little bit of a dirty taste, and it's kind of a little bit chlorinated," said eighth-grader Lauren Wittmann. "It's clean, and it's just a lot better than what we started out with."

For two weeks this month, the students have raised money to purchase packets of PUR at 3 cents each. One packet cleans 10 liters or 2.5 gallons of water.

As of Friday, the eighth-grade classes had contributed $222, but not all of the money has been counted. The money will be sent to P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program.

Nancy Gandersman, a counselor at the school, guided the project, which was the result of a student trip to Cincinnati State Technical & Community College last fall.

Twenty-eight seventh- and eighth-grade girls, who are gifted in math, made the trip. While there, some students participated in a chemistry lab, where they saw a demonstration of PUR.

"I thought it was really amazing, because just a little packet could save so many lives," Cayla Wolfangel said. "I thought it was really sad how many people died. I just wanted to get involved."

A small group of students came up with he idea for a fundraiser, called "A Drop in the Bucket," which began two weeks ago.

To spread awareness, they demonstrated the water purification process to their classmates. Students initially thought the dirty water was gross and vowed not to drink it. They changed their minds when they saw the transformation.

"They drank tons of water," Lauren said.

"Everybody wanted seconds," Paige Closson added.

The girls also showed a video of conditions in poor countries. Students learned that people walk as much as 10 miles to collect filthy water and that 4,000 people die a day because of contaminated water.

"There are bacteria and viruses in it that can give them deadly diarrhea," Lauren said. "Their rivers and stuff are just so contaminated. They're drinking sewer water. It just kind of gives me the creeps thinking about it."

After the presentation, they placed buckets in each eighth-grade homeroom to collect money.

The project has so many positive educational and service aspects, Gandersman said, including introducing the girls to more career possibilities and giving them a greater appreciation of what they have.

"Every time I drink or I turn on a faucet, I think about how people are dying because they don't have clean water," Paige said.
It also showed them, Gandersman said, that individuals can make a difference in the world.

"It's a really good feeling knowing we're actually ouot saving lives doing something as simple as this," Samantha Lee said.