2017 “Ripple Award” Honors Rotarian Devoted to Changing Lives

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Pure Water for the World’s 2017 “Ripple Award” Honors Rotarian Devoted to Changing Lives with Safe Water

Rutland, VT – October 11, 2017. Pure Water for the World, Inc. (PWW) is honored to announce Doug Rupert, a Rotarian from the Milford (NH) Rotary Club, as the 2017 “Ripple Award” recipient, for his profound dedication to bringing sustainable safe water solutions to children and families living in the most underserved communities in Honduras and Haiti.

While traveling on a service trip to Honduras with Rotary District 7870 several years ago, Rupert spent a few days working with the PWW team on a water project. He saw, firsthand, the life-changing benefits families were experiencing from having sustainable access to safe water. When he returned home to New Hampshire, he put his newfound passion into action, making the commitment to support the provision of safe water solutions to families in need.

Rupert was instrumental in procuring a Rotary Foundation Global Grant to support children and families who live in Trojes, the rural region he initially visited. His commitment to helping this community resulted in $138,000 in grant funding, which has benefitted 425 families with life-changing safe water and sanitation solutions.

Today, Rupert continues his steadfast efforts, pursuing additional funding to create an even greater impact. His work is currently focused on bringing safe water solutions to 850 families in Cité Soleil, Haiti, the poorest slum in the Western Hemisphere.

“Doug is tireless in his commitment to the people who live without safe drinking water,” states Carolyn Crowley Meub, Executive Director, PWW. “Working on a global grant takes great patience and tenacity, but that hasn’t deterred him. Doug is deeply motivated because he knows the transformative impact safe water has on a community. He begins with that end in mind! Doug is truly deserving of this special recognition.”

“I am very blessed and grateful to have had the opportunity to make an impact on many lives through the Rotary Organization and Pure Water for the World,” Rupert stated. “Those organizations are the ones that should be honored for the tremendous good they do throughout the world. Pure Water’s efforts in Honduras and Haiti have saved thousands and thousands of lives, primarily children. I would like to thank all my friends that have supported this effort, making it possible through their contributions of seed money to support our Global Grants.”

The “Ripple Award” was initiated in 2014 in honor of the ripple effect; small actions can create a tremendous impact. Previous “Ripple Award” honorees include: The Hoehl Family Foundation, of Vermont, for its tremendous support with bringing safe water solutions to 1,000 families in the urban slum of Cité Soleil, Haiti; to Emma Owens, Ellie Hall, and Hannah Fisher, three Vermont high school students, for their initiative to raise funds to bring clean water filters to 1,070 underserved families in Haiti; to Ken and Ruth Grabeau, of Nashua, New Hampshire, and Peter and Marion Abell, of Brattleboro, Vermont, for their unwavering commitment to safe water for children and families and their unceasing support of Pure Water for the World since its inception.

PWW honored Rupert with the 2017 “Ripple Award” in recognition of his dedication to using his volunteer trip experience as a platform to launch a ripple of change that has already spread wide enough to help hundreds of children and their families.

Learn more about this work by visiting www.purewaterfortheworld.org.

About Pure Water for The World:

Pure Water for the World is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to improve the health and livelihood of children and families, living in underserved communities in Central America and the Caribbean, by providing effective tools and education to establish sustainable safe water, hygiene and sanitation solutions.

Pure Water for the World has partnered with over 200 communities, reaching more than 750,000 people in Haiti and Central America with life-changing, sustainable safe water, hygiene and sanitation solutions.

For more information, visit www.purewaterfortheworld.org.

Contact: Jamin Gelder, Program Manager
Pure Water for the World
P.O. Box 55
Rutland, VT 05702
Phone: 802-747-0778
Fax: 802-773-8575

Email: jamin.gelder@purewaterfortheworld.org

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