Last Thursday, White Water teamed up with ABC15 for a one-day water drive to help the less fortunate in our community. The phone bank raised $4,672 (1,557 cases of water) for St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance. ABC15 was live during the water drive at St Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, while volunteers collected monetary donations from phone calls. During the broadcast, ABC15 interviewed and spoke to many of the supporters, including our own staff.
“With temperatures hovering over 110 degrees, water can truly be the difference between life and death among many residents in Arizona,” said White Water Bottling Company President Chris White. “Our hope is that we can get enough people together to help St. Mary’s satisfy the increasing need for water during our hottest time of year.”
Water is an important necessity especially down in Phoenix, Arizona. Dehydration is the biggest factor of all valley-wide related deaths. 1 person a week is either killed or evacuated off of the Camelback mountain by an emergency helicopter. Most people don’t realize that just 15 minutes in the heat is enough to dehydrate your body. You always need to be carrying a supply of water at all times if you plan to be outside in this heat.
Unfortunately, the homeless of Phoenix deal with this on a daily bases. Finding shade is much more of a necessity than leisure. It becomes a matter of life or death if you’re homeless during the summer months in Phoenix. It’s fairly easy for most of us to find air-conditioned shelter, but the homeless don’t always have that privilege.
Our water drive is to give back to our homeless, who’ve lost their jobs, families or are veterans of our community. If you’re living in Arizona, you should have access to clean drinking water, no questions asked.
We all know Arizona is beautiful! Moreover, our primary goal is to make Arizona a better place to live for all. Thanks to St. Mary’s and ABC15 for joining us for our annual water drive. We look forward to putting this on again next year!
Read the story on ABC15 here.