World Water Day: Walk For Water Downtown With Blood:Water Mission

Today is World Water Day, and local nonprofit Blood:Water Mission (if you’ve been with us since the beginning, you’re probably pretty familiar with them) is rallying Nashvillians to take a symbolic stand for people around the world who don’t have easy (or any) access to clean water.

From Dallas to Chicago, Phoenix to here in Nashville, Blood:Water supporters have had the opportunity to literally walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. These “Water Walks” have offered advocates an invitation to take part in one mile and back walks to collect water in their own cities. The walks are based on the recognition that every day, thousands of young Africans must hike miles each day just for access to water, water that isn’t even safe to drink. In fact, over 1 billion people don’t have access to safe water. That’s 1 in 6 people, and water-related illnesses account for the largest disease burden in the world, costing more lives than anything else.

By joining in solidarity with people in Africa, we’re inviting you to join us in one of these walks for water. We’ll gather as a community to show our support while taking active steps towards making easily accessible, clean drinking water a reality for them. However small this gesture may be, for many it has been a galvanizing and implicating experience, bringing our understanding of our neighbor one mile closer and our love, perhaps, one mile stronger.

Meet at the Nashville Symphony Plaza (off 4th Ave S – downtown) at 6 PM and we’ll walk together to gather water in the river, about a mile there and back (RAIN or SHINE). The whole event should take about an hour.

For more information, visit the Water Walk website, watch this Water Walk video, and join us as we walk downtown tonight (there’s even free parking). Don’t forget your route map and a container (suggested 2-5 gallon jug, bucket, etc)!