Fran Cannon Slayton

Join The Society!

In my book, When the Whistle Blows, Jimmy learns about The Society, an organization started by his great-grandfather, Patrick Fineas O’Cannon.  Members of The Society promise to do kind deeds for others – sometimes total strangers – in order to honor family and friends who have passed away, and for whom they can no longer do kind deeds.

I’ve decided to start The Society from When the Whistle Blows in real life.

Every so often – maybe once or twice a month – I am going to offer an opportunity here on my blog for those who wish to become a “member of The Society,” to take a specific action to help others.

Prior to my diagnosis with brain cancer, I had been working to edit a fantastic book called Ecological Handprints.  It is a multi-media book by Professor Rocky Rohwedder with a foreword by Bishop Desmond Tutu, and it is coming out soon – I will tell you a lot more about it in a future post.  Suffice it to say I am thrilled to have been a small part of the project because I feel it is a book that could literally help save the world…now if that’s not a teaser, I’m not sure what is!

The Adventure Project.

One of the programs I learned about through Ecological Handprints is the The Adventure Project.  Right now, The Adventure Project is working to raise enough money to provide clean drinking water to 6,000 people in Uganda.  Why is this important?

• 663 million people – 1 in 10 people worldwide – lack access to clean and safe drinking water.
• Over one-third of all wells drilled in the last twenty years are now broken – 50,000 are currently broken in Africa alone. They remain broken because communities lack access to spare parts, tools and trained well mechanics to keep them working.
• Every $1 invested in clean water can yield $4 – $12 in economic returns in the local community.

The Adventure Project Needs to Raise $250,000. 

For the cost of a cup of coffee, you can help them make this happen.  In fact, you can donate whatever amount you choose – from $1 to $1,000.  Any amount will help!

What will The Adventure Project do with your donation?

Here’s what their plan is:

1. Three villages currently lack water because their wells are broken: Bugongo, Mukayembe, Kakindo. We want to fix them and hire caretakers to keep them clean and flowing.

2. Three villages are located completely off the grid, and have never had water before. We want to drill a deep borehole and connect all three communities to clean water through a piped network of 33 tap stands. This huge project will give over 5,000 people in Bitojo, Byantumo, and Nyabubale villages clean water for the first time.

3. The village of Kabambiro needs a motorized borehole to meet the demand so it can serve 550 people in the growing community.

Why is this important to me, personally?

Because our family was hoping to take a trip to Uganda this coming summer with our church.  Our pastor is originally from Uganda, and we were hoping to help him bring clean drinking water to his home village.  With my brain cancer diagnosis, it is not looking like we’ll be able to make this trip – at least, not this year.

But helping The Adventure Project raise money to bring clean drinking water to a whole area of Uganda is a close second!

Join The Society Today!

Join The Society today by making a donation to The Adventure Project.  If you do, please be sure to leave a comment below so I can be sure to thank you for helping bring water to those who need it.

Thanks for your help.  And welcome to The Society!