Club helping Navajo families get running water into their homes

 
About 59 families on the Navajo Nation will have home-based water systems for the first time. The Rotary Club of Sedona has led an effort over the last year to provide clean running water systems to Navajo families in the Dilkon Chapter, about 320 square desolate miles about 45 minutes northeast of Winslow. "The programs we conducted raised $264,000 in donations to provide water systems to the Navajo," said Immediate Past District 5495 Governor David Simmer. "It will be absolutely life-changing for those families.” Donations for the project came from Rotary clubs and other generous donors in Arizona, California, Colorado, North Carolina, and Michigan as well as from Rotary clubs and friends of Rotary from Mexico, Canada and India. About 30% of the total funding came as matching funds from Rotary’s International Foundation. Locally the Rotary Club of Sedona Village, the Verde Valley Rotary Club in Cottonwood and the Flagstaff Rotary club supported the fundraising effort. Each home-based water system installation includes a 1,200-gallon underground cistern to hold the supply of clean water, solar panels to operate a pump to bring the water into the home, a solar-powered hot water system and the plumbing necessary to provide in-home running water. To help support this program please see the Arizona Gives Day story below. For speaking engagements, please contact David Simmer at dsimmer9@gmail.com