JHUNICEF hosts Water on the Beach

The Hopkins chapter of UNICEF (JHUNICEF) hosted a fundraising event for the UNICEF Tap Project last Friday, Apr. 6, on the Beach. Entitled "Water on the Beach," the event aimed to raise money to provide clean, safe drinking water to children in impoverished nations.

"[The] goal is to get clean, safe drinking water to people around the world," sophomore Evan Rule, fundraising co-chair of JHUNICEF, said.

The event was originally scheduled for Friday, Mar. 30, but the rainy weather discouraged attendance. Save for the few members of JHUNICEF, no other people were on the beach. In addition, Rule explained how the cold weather forced the group to cancel the water balloon toss.

"We're still selling water balloons," Rule said. "[People] can throw them at us if they pay us enough money."

Consequently, JHUNICEF took down the event at 3 p.m. on Mar. 30. The event was set up again the following week, garnering more success.

"The event was postponed from Friday March 30th to Friday April 6th due to rain, which confused some people. Nevertheless, we had a good turnout, with a lot of people buying lemonade or water balloons. I'd say about a 100 [were in attendance]," sophomore Maha Haqqani, President of JHUNICEF, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

The event featured a lemonade stand, a water balloon toss and a water-themed scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt included challenges such as finding a bendy straw, identifying the cheapest bottle of water in Charles Street Market and finding a Water-Type Pokemon card. The winning team was given UNICEF t-shirts.

Upon learning about the event, some students thought the event's activities contradicted its cause. Students believed that the activities seemed to waste water to support a cause that strives to provide clean water to impoverished populations.

"There was a small handful of students expressing their views on our facebook event page, and while they are entitled to their own opinions, [JHUNICEF] felt that was not the right platform to raise their concerns," Haqqani wrote.

"Moreover, we stand by our belief that the event was not contradictory to the cause. . .Along with the lemonade stand and Water Trivia table, we thought the event would attract people as well as raise awareness about the water crisis in some parts of the world. There was no unnecessary wastage of water. The interesting thing is that UNICEF itself approved of the event when I sent the Volunteer Office our entire event outline and how we were planning to raise money, so it was strange that others should so vehemently oppose it without realizing that our primary concern was to raise money that could actually be put to use helping those most in need of it. In the future, however, we'll try to keep in mind the views of everyone."

Despite the issues with the weather, JHUNICEF was able to earn money for its cause. In total, they raised nearly $200.

"Considering the weather, it's been pretty good," Rule said. "People have been pretty generous with donations."

Overall, JHUNICEF sees its event as a success and a significant step forward. As a provisional group, they currently receive no funding from Hopkins. The entire event cost the organization $35.

"The team and I were pleased with the event. We put a lot of effort into it and while it could have been warmer outside and we could have attracted a larger crowd, we're very happy considering this was our first major event as a campus club," Haqqani wrote.

JHUNICEF is already thinking of ways to improve this event for next year. Changes include moving the event to mid-April in order to take advantage of better weather.

"We most certainly plan on having events like this in the future!" Haqqani wrote. "In fact, the JHUNICEF committee thinks "Water on the Beach" could become an annual thing."

The event's cause, the UNICEF Tap Project was created in 2007. Since then, it has raised nearly $3 million to provide clean, safe drinking water to children across the globe.

For UNICEF's 2012 campaign, the funds will be targeted at Togo, Vietnam, Mauritania and Cameroon, according to the UNICEF website.