Students at Sappington Elementary Walk for a Good Cause

As Americans, we often take the little things for granted. For example, when we want a drink of water or need to do our dishes, we just walk to our kitchens. To take a bath or a shower, we can just head to our bathrooms.

But it's not so simple for some families.

According to a report from Relief Networks, children in many African villages are forced to walk several miles each day to bring drinking water home. They walk an average of two to four miles to get the water their families desperately need, often finding it in unsanitary sources such as rivers, streams, erosions ditches or gullies.

This sobering reality is part of what inspired students at to take action. Sappington students are taking part in a yearlong project to raise funds to buy a well for families in an African village that will allow them better access to the water they need for survival.

On Oct. 12, students took part in one of many projects the school will host this year to raise enough money for the well. They held a walkathon.

Since kids in Sierra Leone, Africa walk two miles each day to bring water to their families, so Sappington students walked two miles as well—that’s 12 laps around their field.

“We’re doing this because Africans have to walk two miles just to get a drink of water,” said first-grader Finn Ackerman, who observed that in stark contrast, when he wants a drink, “I walk to my refrigerator.”

With three market tallies on his hand as he rounded the corner of the Sappington school yard, Ackerman and other students continued walking until they had 12 marks each before they enjoyed a drink of water themselves. Students raised money based on how far they walked.

The walkathon raised $1,708.77 toward the school’s goal of $3,021.