A very special Shower Strike

Before Well Aware’s very first well, our founder, Sarah Evans, was brainstorming with a group of friends in Austin, Texas, trying to figure out how to raise enough money to fund the first project. A friend of hers came up with an idea, “How about we tell people we aren’t going to take a shower until we raise enough funds?” And that is exactly what the one woman team and her friends did, and it worked. They were able to raise $25,000 in one week, enough for that very first water well.

Fast forward 14 years later: what started out as a quirky idea and a vision has transformed into a powerful annual event that truly changes the world.

After another stinky week of Skipping Showers, Walking for Water, and Fundraising, our team is full of gratitude for everyone who came together to make this year’s Shower Strike campaign the best one yet.

When over 400 participants, 60 teams, and 7 schools took to the starting line on April 20th for the 13th Shower Strike, we had goals of raising $375,000 to provide 25,000 people with clean water. But, thanks to the passionate efforts of our fierce Strikers, together we reached $420,000+ raised and more than 28,000 people impacted. That’s 28,000 lives transformed forever, all in one week.

A special milestone

This year’s Shower Strike was an extra special one, not only because of the success of our fantastic Strikers, but also because we broke ground on our 100th water system DURING it!

Our founder, Sarah Evans, broadcasted straight from the drill site of this new water well. She took us through the community of Muruku – a rural community of about 4,500 people in central Kenya – and showed us behind-the-scenes with our technical team as they drilled the new well. You can see the drill rig, our team hard at work, hear from the chairman of the local water committee, and there was even a surprise at the end… a big splash of water exploding from the new well as we hit water!

WATCH US HIT WATER ON THE 100TH PROJECT

Strikers changing the world

To celebrate Shower Strike and this big milestone, every Striker who raised $1,000 or more got their name on the 100th water project!

45 incredible Strikers reached this goal. But, that’s not all… We had Strikers hiking mountains with a jerry can, sharing their art, creating funny reels on Instagram, and getting entire communities involved. To celebrate those participants who went above and beyond, we are excited to announce our top prizes:

Striker of the Year: Mary Elizabeth Ellis
Raised the most funds overall through April 26th.

Mary Elizabeth is a 6-time Striker. This year, she took to Instagram and Cameo to share Shower Strike with her audience to raise funds for clean water. Not only did she raise more than she ever has in one year, but she also greatly surpassed her goal – reaching a total of $16,525 and making her our 2022 Striker of the Year.

Striker of the Week: Terry Kowalicki
Raised the most funds during Shower Strike week, April 20-26.

Terry, or TK, is a 3-time Striker, and each year he continues to up the game and raise more funds for clean water. He was our 2021on Striker of Year last year and this year, he earned the spot of Striker of the Week. Terry hiked 5 mountains and trails in Colorado all while carrying a jerrycan this year to help raise awareness and funds! He also posed for a picture in a cop car, posting to Facebook that he was arrested for being too smelly. His creativity and his dedication led him to raising $10,135 the week of Shower Strike, and more than $21,000 overall.

Top Fundraising Team: Obidos – Amazon DSP
Raised the most overall of any classroom team.

This was the first Shower Strike for Obidos Logistics Alliance, in the Amazon DSP network, and they did an incredible job! Led by Steven and Carmel Daigh, past Strikers, they raised an astounding $39,000+ for our clean water systems. This team of drivers participated in water walks, spread awareness, and earned the spot of Top Fundraising team!

Top Fundraising Classroom: McCallum PALS
Raised the most overall of any classroom team.

The McCallum PALS have participated in Shower Strike since 2015, lead by their teachers David Winter and Richard Cowles, and this year raised over $5,000. They walked through the halls of the high school carrying a bucket for students and faculty to donate – and it worked! This team won this award last year as well.

Thank You

Our partner communities and our team are so thankful for everyone who participated and donated this year. It takes a Village to raise awareness and funds every April and we couldn’t do it without each and every one of you. We mean it when we say this impact will change the world. Because of the success of Shower Strike, we can get to work building more clean water projects and kickstarting a Ripple Effect of impact for so many more partner communities… communities just like Muruku.

Over 28,000 more people will now have clean water. Over 28,000 more people will have their lives impacted for generations. And this is all because of YOU.

We look forward to continuing to grow this important, quirky, impactful campaign with you each year.

And, a special thank you to our amazing Shower Strike sponsors this year!

Spectrum Brands
Tito’s Handmade Vodka
LARQ
Atlassian
Aqua Strategies
Pani
Biofriendly Planet
INTERA, Inc.
Hairstory
Print Crypto
Alan Blake
Robert Richman
Stahl Family Foundation
Eric & Mallory Johnson