A Letter from Coach Bottomly

An Introductory Note from Coach Bottomly

Sam Wise Gamgee is my favorite literary character. Many of you know Sam because either you have read or seen the film version of Tolkien’s epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings . There is a scene early in The Fellowship of the Rings, where Sam misses home, but gazing over at his friend, Frodo, realizes that he has crossed a Rubicon – a point of no return. Whispering almost to himself, Sam says, “I know the long journey ahead isn’t to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains – those things I thought I wanted. Now I don’t rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire. I must see it through, sir, if you understand me.”




What I love about Sam is that he doesn’t know how important his role is in the mission. Often Sam chides himself for being a bumbling, screw up hobbit. He thinks that he’s only putting the mission at risk. Little does Sam know, ironically, that he will be the epic hero of the story.

In graduate school, I studied Tolkien’s version of quest in depth to understand his massive cross-generational appeal. What I discovered is that in Tolkien’s version, a quest involves an underdog protagonist who has been summoned by election (not volition) to a mission with a daunting task. Consequently, to accomplish the mission, the bumbling underdog must rely on a motley gang of friends (think Wizard of Oz) to help him accomplish the task. In other words, the bumbling “I” must depend upon a bumbling “we”. In addition, I discovered, all quests involve risk, uncertainty, and the real possibility of failure. From the outset, then, the protagonist must measure the cost involved, and at many points, take leaps of faith. Usually, only in the end, does the protagonist look back and realize that the hardship and suffering then was worth the joy and celebration now.

I say all this to serve as a backdrop for this basketball season. This week I have summoned the basketball team to join me, along with many other Casady students, on a quest with an epic arc. Our concrete goal is to help raise monies and awareness to provide 1,000 students in Africa with clean, safe water. Many of you who know me and my wife (and our son, Silas) know how dear Africa, and specifically, Ethiopia, are to us. This mission then goes straight to the heart.

The 5 Challenge then is my way of getting this team to participate in a journey of significance. I will let your son explain this challenge and the subsequent mission. But if you would like to learn more and even get involved with us, I’d encourage you to go to http://casady4h2ope.blogspot.com.

In closing, I am reminded of a passage from Victor Frankl’s holocaust memoir Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl’s thesis, forged on the anvil of suffering in a German “death camp”, involved the idea that as human beings, we can live without sex, money, or power, but we can not live without meaning. We exist, in other words, not to ask what life means, but for life to ask us what we mean.

Toward the end of his long meditation, Frankl concludes his memoir with these words:

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone's task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.

My hope and prayer is that every single player, 9th through 12th grade, will discover, like Sam Gamgee, their crucial role for the success of our mission.

To a great journey ahead,

Coach Bottomly

T-Shirt Sells!

After our chapel launch, Casady UD students were excited to start raising $$$ by purchasing Team Hope T-shirts.

Over $1100 raised on the 1st day!



We will sell t-shirts again on Jan. 26th in the field house at the Heritage Hall game.

The Pre-Launch

This morning 296 Upper Division Students and 215 Middle Division Students

(along with 50+ faculty)

heard the story,

the mission,

the vision,

and received their summoning.

To get educated.

To get creative.

To get involved.

Already we're hearing reports of ideas students are having to participate.

It's only begun.

New-T shirt...buy...buy...buy!

Buy a H2OPE T-shirt for $15 and all the profits will help us toward reaching our goal to provide one African school with clean, safe water!

We will be selling in Student Center during A Block, B Block, and after lunch on Friday and Monday next week.

Student Promo Video

Why Water?

1.1 billion people on our planet lack access to safe, clean drinking water.

That's one in six of us.

80% of all disease on the planet is attributable to the lack of water and basic sanitation.


To learn more click here.

Water for Schools

50% of all schools in developing countries do not have clean water.

Or bathroom facilities. Or hygiene resources.

Now there is a way we can help change this.

To learn more click here.

$20 = 20 years of clean H20 -> 1 Person

Underground aquifers can be found even in dry areas,

and with the proper funding and knowledge,

wells can be built.

A freshwater well costs $5,000

and can serve an average of 500 people with clean,

safe drinking water for 20 years.

To learn more click here.

What happens after a well is built?

After a well is installed, charity: water partners work directly with villagers,

teaching them how to maintain and fix their well and hand pump device,

while also conducting basic hygiene and sanitation classes.

To learn more about charity: water's partners click here.

Closing the loop: proving it with Google Earth

charity: water proves every well built

using photos, video, and GPS coordinates plotted in Google Earth.

if we raise $20,000, 12-18 months later,

not only will we get a plaque engraved at the school,

but charity: water staff or volunteers will visit the project on the ground,

to take photos and videos of the work done.

To learn more click here.

Simply put, This is WHY

A Cup of Dirty Water

Would you drink this?
Women and children in Africa walk miles a day just to fill up their jugs with water similar to the water in the photo above. Now if you're disgusted with what it look likes like imagine what it taste like. Would you drink water that is hot, muddy, and infested with thousands of disease causing bacteria. The truth is this. Many people in Africa have to drink this every day in order to survive. Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation causes 80% of all sickness and disease. You can make a difference. Help us by supporting our cause. Follow us on twitter, become a fan on facebook, donate, and get involved in the Casady4H2OPE project.

The H2OPE Team

New T-shirt design

The H2OPE Creative Team was humming with ideas in class today about the new t-shirt.

You can kind of make out the FRONT.

And BACK.

Not sure yet what to put on the sleeve.

The plan is to sell the t-shirt to EVERYONE

in the Casady community after the launch event on December 4th.

So mark your calender.

All profits go toward the $20,000 goal.

Good work, team.

Simply put, this is the why

Simply put, this is the why.

Think About It

400 million hours each year.

That's how much time girls age 12 and over

in developing countries like Ethiopia

spend fetching clean water,

instead of attending school.



Think of how much creativity,

brain power,

innovation,

curiosity,

and passion

could be harnessed in the classroom

if young girls had safe, clean water running through their schools and villages?

Last week Jody Landers, a native Iowan, a mother of six, and founder of Water 4 Christmas, visited Liberia to see in person the water projects she helped raise money for with charity: water. When someone recently asked Jody why she loves charity:water, she just pointed to this picture and said, "This is why."




1,247 water projects completed.

650,000 people served.

The H2OPE Team T-Shirt

Last week our Team T-shirts arrived!

They were designed by our Creative Team Leader, Travis Hibdon.

Here is the front.




The back.



And the sleeve. We took the Schools for Water symbol and the whole Apple concept of "Specialist" and adapted it to "Solutionist".

The simple idea is that we are all part of the solution.




Travis is working on a similar design for a T-shirt we will unveil for public purchase in the weeks ahead in which all the proceeds will go toward our goal of $20,000.

So stay tune.

Our Partner's Story

The 5 Challenge

It's a simple challenge.

Come up with a creative fundraiser.

As a class. Grade. Team. Family. Group of friends. Or yourself.


Then recruit 5 people to participate.

For example;

Coach Bottomly is having his basketball players

get 5 people to donate $1, $5, or whatever $ amount

every time they win a game.

They are calling it a "Win for Water".

Brainstorm with your teachers. Parents. Friends.

Ask them: what could we do to rise to this challenge

to help students rise to overcome a greater challenge:

living without clean water.
____


All donations will go to charity: water and are tax-deductible.

100% of all monies will go directly to providing a school in Africa

of 1,000 students,

a new well,

new bathroom facilities,

and new hygiene resources,

so students can drink clear water,

go to the bathroom in a dignifying way,

and receive added protection from infection and disease.


___

Eventually, your 5 people will ask - how do I donate?

It's simple.

Just click the Donate button.

But wait until January 26.

We only have a 3 month window of time (January 26-April 26)

to run our campaign on charity: water's web site,

where your 5 people will receive a tax deduction,

but more importantly, where every dollar they give

goes toward our goal of $20,000,

breaking the vicious cycle of extreme poverty for

one school,

and one community in Africa,

and helping building a foundation for a better, brighter, and hope-filled future.
___

Will you help us do that?

The Story and Mission

So on the first day of class we watched the video below.



It felt like stepping through a doorway.

On the other side we discovered a world within our world.

Made up of over a billion people who don't have access to clean drinking water.

Stop and think about that.

That's 1 out of every 6 people on the planet.

We also learned other disturbing things.

Like the fact that every 15 seconds another person dies of a water-related disease.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10...11...12...13...14...15.

Another completely preventable H2O tragedy.

That equals about 4,500 deaths a day.

90% of those fatalities are children.

____

And then there are schools.

Like ours.

50% of them are without water in developing countries.

That means that for every other little girl or boy

they go thirsty all day in school.

Imagine what it would have been like if after recess,

after hanging on the monkeybars,

and chasing your classmate in a game of duck-duck-goose,

that there was no water to quench your thirst.

That reality just doesn't seem possible.

And yet it is.

What's worse is that often girls age 12 and above have to leave school

and walk 3 hours a day to fetch water for their families.

Every year girls miss over 400 million hours of school

just to fetch water.

It's ironic, really.

We ask our teachers for a drink to get out of class.

H2O is our free ticket out of learning.

But for girls in many parts of Africa, the lack of water forces them out.

When they would rather be in the classroom.

Reading. Writing. Drawing. Counting.

_______

Just think then what safe, clean water will do.

For children. For girls. For schools. For villages. For countries.

That's what we've been doing A LOT lately.

Thinking. And wondering. And imagining. And dreaming.

And asking the question, What if.

Now we're ready to ACT.

To take our learning from the classroom into the community.

We want to tackle a global problem,

in a local way,

through a simple solution.

_____

So here's the skinny.

In partnership with charity: water, our goal is to raise $20,000 to cover the comprehensive water cost for a new well, new bathroom facilities, and new hygiene resources for one African school.

That's $20K for 1,000 students to have safe, clean water.

All donations go to charity: water, are tax-deductible,

and 100% goes directly to water solutions.

Which will provide boys and girls the equal opportunity to attend school.

Making it possible to break the cycle of poverty,

and making it possible to dream of a new kind of future.

One with real hope.

_______

To accomplish our mission- we need your passion, courage, and innovation.

Consider this your summoning.

To get educated.

To get creative.

To get involved.

Become a part of the H2OPE solution.

And help us eliminate extreme poverty for one school in Africa.