Elementary Students Partner with Local Company to Save Kids’ Lives

LUCAS, Texas - Nov. 3, 2014 - PRLog -- After studying Latin American countries and learning how unsafe drinking water makes kids sick there, students at Hart Elementary School in Lucas, Texas, decided to raise money to help drill a clean water well for a village in Rivas, Nicaragua. Weathermatic, the Dallas-based irrigation software and control manufacturer, committed to match the students’ funds, dollar for dollar and travel to Rivas to drill the well.

Twice a year, Weathermatic employees and customers travel with Living Water International to personally drill wells they’ve funded through the company’s social business model, Save Water | Give Life. Brodie Bruner, Weathermatic’s Executive Vice President of Sustainability Services and father of Hart Student Council member, Brendan Bruner, is a regular on these trips. When Bruner’s 4th grade Spanish class studied Latin American countries, he shared with his class about the children dying from dirty water and poor sanitation and his dad’s trips to drill water wells there.

As a part of Lovejoy Independent School District, Hart Elementary encourages students to work for justice in their community and holds an annual fund raiser to support a charity. Bruner’s classmates were inspired to raise nearly $3,000.00 to help drill a well for kids thousands of miles away from Dallas. Teachers worked the fund raiser into social studies curriculum on economics by holding a market day for students to sell handmade products to classmates and teachers. According to Hart Principal, Kathy Foster, “A well-rounded education inspires children to think outside of what they know, to be involved in their local community but also globally-minded. It is always our goal as educators to see our students make a difference in the world.”

After matching their funds, Weathermatic employees travelled to the village, drilled the well, and installed a plaque dedicating the well on behalf of the Hart Elementary Students. According to the World Health Organization, water- and sanitation-related diseases kill more children every year than malaria, AIDS, and measles. Thanks to the generous students of Hart Elementary and matching donation by Weathermatic, a village of over 500 people in Nicaragua will have safe, clean water and a more prosperous future. “Because of the combined efforts of our drilling and hygiene teams and the donation from Hart Elementary, no longer will these Nicaraguan children, so full of love and hope, drink from a diseased well.” Brodie Bruner said. “This was all made possible because caring students chose to help other students nearly a world away from them. Their compassion will save lives.”

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Weathermatic is a leading provider of water-conserving technology and services.  Using proven irrigation science and market leading technology, our solutions help maximize landscape beauty while saving billions of gallons of water. Weathermatic has been serving landscape professionals for nearly seventy years and has a full line of products including software, controllers, sensors, valves, rotors, sprays and nozzles. These products have been installed in more than 85 countries and on high profile properties like the U.S. Capitol Building, Buckingham Palace and the College Football Hall of Fame.  Weathermatic also provides water-saving Sustainability Services for commercial properties that can save 20-70% in landscape water through smart irrigation technology implementation, monitoring, inspections and reporting.