By Breck Sharbel
After spending months creating a proposal, the Trevecca team won $9,000to fund their campaign and $2,000 each in scholarship money.
Trevecca faculty nominated five students to be part of an interdisciplinary team: Stephens Hiland, a communications major; Rachel Mudd, a business major; Erica Russell, a social justice major; Taylor Fleming, a social justice major; and Athyn Galardi, a religion major. With Jason Adkins and Jamie Casler as the faculty advisors, the Trevecca team submitted their proposal at the beginning of December.
Shortly thereafter, they won first place.
Students can then fill the Nalgenes with tap water—while also filling Drop By Drop’s donation jars with the money they would have spent on things like soda or coffee.
The team is aware that many of their fellow students are on a tight budget, so Drop By Drop’s fundraisers are designed with that in mind.
For starters, they will have jars for collecting spare change at key locations throughout campus. Working with Trevecca’s meal services at on-campus restaurants, Drop By Drop is exploring the possibility of donating a portion of a meal exchange —should a student chose tap water over a bottled drink. Jamie Casler, director of the J.V.Morsch Center for Social Justice, said education is the fist step in getting students to care about the issue.
“A lot of people don’t have a direct connection with unclean water, especially in the United States,” Casler noted. “Clean water is a privilege here at Trevecca and in the United States.”
This article originally appeared in the January 2015 print edition of TrevEchoes.
