Water for West Virginians

Angelina Sarro is not a typical high school senior. She lives in New York where Superstorm Sandy clobbered them in 2012. She and her neighbors received help from giving people all over the country. Now, she wants to help others who have experienced a similar tragedy.

A few weeks ago she texted her social studies teacher, Don Poland:

“Me and my dad were talking and we want to try and pay it forward to West Virginia and bring his trailer and get 1000s of cases of water to bring down do you have any ideas on how to help and get enough water”

She knew her teacher had experience with providing aid to disaster stricken areas. Last year he organized a student trip to bring aid to Moore, Oklahoma, after a deadly tornado tore through the town. He agreed to help Angelina gather donations of bottled water to give to 300,000 West Virginians who were without tap water because of a chemical spill. In about a week, they collected 227 cases and more than 100 gallon bottles.

Angelina, Don Poland and her father drove the twelve hours to Clendenin, WV. They said it looked like a ghost town, but eventually found a church whose congregation helped them distribute the water.

Don said, "It was all really powerful. That simple little text turned into all that."

The church congregation collected gas money to pay for their new friends' trip back to New York. "It was great, but the idea was not to take care of us," Don said. "I told them, 'In the future, you take care of somebody else.'"

Today’s gift was to buy a cup of coffee for a friend. And in the spirit of paying it forward, I know she will take care of someone else.

In Giving,

Robin