Weddington High student to give clean drinking water to Kenyans

Michael Drewery, a rising junior at Weddington High, said he wanted to do something this summer to help people on a global scale.

(Courtesy Vestergaard Frandsen)

He remembered learning in the eighth grade about how many people in Kenya don't have easily accessible clean drinking water. Michael said he researched further this summer and found that conditions there haven't changed much.

A friend of his, Savannah Zook, will be going to Kenya on a mission trip July 11, he said.

So Michael, along with his friends Matt Hrycyna and Nate Benn, have been going door-to-door asking for donations to buy LifeStraws, which are personal water filters.

They've collected about $1,000 and plan to send the filters to Kenya with their friend Savannah, Michael said.

LifeStraws are are a product of Vestergaard Frandsen, and can only be bought in the United States and Canada through Eartheasy.com, a sustainable living website.

Michael has been in contact with one of Eartheasy's managers, Ben Seaman.

"Michael is a very forward-thinking young man, and his donation will help over 100 Kenyans access clean water," Seaman said in an email. He is selling the filters to Michael at a discounted price.

Seaman said that girls in Kenya collect firewood to boil drinking water, and that by doing so, they're missing school and deforesting the area.

Michael said most places where he's rung doorbells have been kind. And he said hopes the donation makes and impact: "They don't have clean drinking water over there at all."