By RJ Walters, Editor
Only Kelly Erickson of Plymouth FUMC could have imagined that.
The middle-school student presented Keaton with a check that will provide enough money to build three clean drinking wells for 9,000 people in Liberia through The Advance’s Water For Life project.
Erickson said she saw an advertisement speaking of the hardships Liberians were forced to endure just to get clean water, and she decided to pitch the idea to her local church.
One year, and what she said was a 78-hour time investment later, Erickson achieved her goal.
“Sixty-eight percent of Liberians rely on rivers, ponds, swamps and unfiltered wells to get their water,” she said. “This situation is worse during the dry season.”
Liberia has been devastated by more than 14 years of civil war, thus basic necessities are not always easy to come by.
Plymouth FUMC matched the first $3,000 the project sowed and Erickson said local businesses, schools and organizations made her vision a reality.
The project’s slogan was, “Can you help build a well one dollar at a time?” and her father created a website (www.wellsinafrica.ericksonflute.com). The duo also produced silicon wristbands to pass out to supporters.
Erickson’s presentation, as well as that of 17-year old Jessica Arnold of Waterford UMC, who continues to collect money for a Liberian school, overjoyed Keaton.
“If God can touch two young women with ideas, one 12, one 17, what else do I need to say? It’s in the spirit, it’s in the flesh…and I just got a check for $8,000 — that’s not too bad,” he said.
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