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A snow day in January in Eliot, Maine has turned into an all-out effort by the five Marshwood District schools to help provide clean water to remote villages around the world. A district-wide walkathon will be held 9 am to 3 pm  Saturday, March 26, at the high school to raise money for UNICEF’s TAP project.  (Continued below) 

Neighbors Aidan Cantrell, a third grader, and Brittney Willis, a fifth grader, were sitting around trying to fill the hours home from school Jan. 12 when Aidan’s mom handed them the book, “We dream of a World,” written by kids in Missouri. A blurb about world hunger intrigued them enough to go to the Web site.  

“They saw the Tap project video and they knew that this is what they wanted to do,” recalled Annette Cantrell, Aidan’s mom and an “ed-tech” at Eliot Elementary.  

Maine was not represented on a map of states involved with Tap, so Aidan and Brittney committed to getting a drop of water for Maine on the map and doing an event to help save children. Aidan came up with the slogan “One dream, one drop at a time.” 

The result is the district-wide walkathon. 

“Show up when you can, walk as long as you want, and take a stand against children dying from dehydration and water-born parasites,” Cantrell said.  

According to UNICEF, $1 pays for 40 days of clean drinking water for one child.  

All five of the Marshwood schools were given large posters of an empty water glass and for each donation a child brings in, he or she is allowed to put a water droplet into the glass. The goal is to fill all five water glasses, according to Cantrell.  

Closing ceremonies will begin at 2.30 when the children will sing “We are the World” together. 

“The children from our schools will be coming together with family and friends learning about their world and what an important role they play in it,” Cantrell said.  

Local moms will hold a bake sale during the day at the high school to help in the fundraising. Wildcat Pizza will be helping with the fundraising on Tuesday, March 22^nd.