Walkin’ in a Winter Waterland

Over 18,000 more people will have clean water in 2023! That number is all because of your efforts from our annual Winter Waterland Gala. 18,000 more people that don’t have to worry about waterborne illnesses anymore, that can attend school or go to work consistently and increase the economic activity in their community, that can live longer, healthier lives!

It’s so important to our team that our supporters are able to see all of our work throughout the year and this event allows us to do so. As life gets a little more back to normal (if that’s even the word to describe it), having all of our supporters under one roof to celebrate clean water was truly spectacular. The compassion and generosity that we witnessed in the room is something that overfills our hearts with joy and so much gratitude as we reflect back on the night.

Missed the Gala? Here’s a recap!

This year, our Winter Waterland gala came to life at the beautiful Hotel Van Zandt. Our cocktail hour consisted of doing a water walk, snapping pictures at a photo booth by the Artist Couple, shopping for Kenyan goodies with Sawa Sawa, bidding on the silent auction, and experiencing a drill up close with our Virtual Reality.

Sixth Annual Impact Awards
As travel continues to increase, we are so grateful that most of our award recipients and event sponsors were able to be in the room during the event. Our recipients of the Global Impact Award, Turk and Christy Pipkin- founders of the Nobelity Project, both attended along with a group of their loyal friends and family. Ian Muiruri from Ol Pejeta Conservancy flew in from Kenya to accept the Geoffrey S. Ryder Ambassador of the Year Award for himself and Hetal Ganatra. Mary Elizabeth Ellis, our 2022 Striker of the Year, unexpectedly couldn’t attend, but she had friends attend in her honor and our Founder shared some words on her behalf.

Erin Ivey, Austin singer-songwriter, and DJ Mixer Rogers led our night with fun music and entertaining emcee skills. We heard from our Founder, Sarah Evans, and our Project Director, Mike Mutuku, about the communities served in 2022 and what the future of Well Aware entails. The remarkable Cowboy Auctioneers followed up by leading our Live Auction and selling some amazing experiential packages including a trip to Costa Rica, Canada, Kenya, and more!

This fantastic event could not have happened without our Water is Life presenting sponsor Spectrum Brands, our Water is Health supporting sponsors Atlassian and Print Crypto and all of our other sponsors- Tito’s handmade vodka, INTERA, PCNA, FreeWater, Tall Tree collective, and Diamonds Direct. It takes a village to put together an event like this and raise enough funds to give over 18,000 more people clean water in the upcoming year so we are so very thankful for everyone who made it happen!

We say we couldn’t do this work with you but it is nothing short of the truth. Gala nights are a sweet reminder of the many incredible people that care deeply about the work we do and the people we get to serve together.