Kindergarten Students at Cora Spencer Elementary Raising Awareness For Clean Water
Proving you’re never too young to help, students at Cora Spencer Elementary School in Mansfield are joining the global movement to bring awareness to unsanitary water conditions in other countries.
The school decided to join World Vision’s Global 6K for Water. The virtual event takes place on May 22. However, due to local weather forecasts, the school has postponed its event to May 23 at 3 p.m.
The idea was sparked after the winter storm in February that left some students without electricity, gas and/or water. When teacher Traci Browder explained that this is how some children in other countries live every day, the class decided to bring awareness to the issue.
“I am so proud of my young kindergarten leaders. They are already working to solve problems to make the world a better place,” Browder, a kindergarten instructor, said.
Six kilometers is the average round trip distance women and children in the developing world walk for water — water that is often contaminated with life-threatening
diseases.
Around the world, about 800 million people don’t have safe water to drink or use, statistics show. They often get sick, and even worse from not having sanitary water to drink.
Connecting Real World To Learning
“This is how we can connect the real-world to learning. I explained that while our crisis was temporary, in other countries, being without safe drinking water is the norm,” Browder said.
To prepare for the event, students in Browder’s class learned they need to build stamina to prepare for thei Global 6K. They started a few weeks ago walking at 20-minute intervals and have been adding 10 minutes to each day’s walk.
Along with the walk, families are making water-themed tie-dye shirts, lawn posters, and posters for the event.
“More importantly, we have all become better stewards of this precious natural resource, and we have all been walking daily while thinking of our neighbors in other countries and the crisis they face every single day,” Browder said.
Although participants may walk a 6K route from wherever they are, some participants will be doing the walk at the school. Some parents have said they will come up to the school to donate water for the initiative as well.
