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The Fight for Clean Water
James Leitner founded MissionCleanWater in May 2016 with the simple goal of helping as many people gain access to clean water as possible. Since then, Leitner has raised thousands of dollars towards building wells for the world’s most underserved and marginalized communities. Leitner’s first major fundraising event for MissionCleanWater was to run one marathon a month while carrying 5 gallons of water in 2016-2017 to symbolize what women and children have to do every day in some parts of the world to get water. From there, Leitner started his journey walking from his hometown of Scotch Plains, NJ to San Francisco (3,250 miles) while pulling 10 gallons of water behind him. This journey took Leitner 143 days and across 3 mountain ranges, the Great Plains, and the desert. MissionCleanWater has also mobilized people around the country who are completing similar treks to raise money for the cause.
With the goal to raise $30,000 in 30 days to build a clean water and hygiene solution for an all-girls school in Uganda, Leitner will run 30 miles every day for the month of July. He’s currently on day 20 of this journey and you can follow along with his progress here. Leitner will run the 30-mile loop every day in Tamaques Park in Westfield, NJ and could use a companion or two to run with!
How You Can Help
American Insurance is thrilled to announce a donation matching campaign. We will match every donation for the next week up to $1,000 so that we can help James get that much closer to his goal. To make a tax-exempt donation and to learn more about this very worthy cause, please go to the Mission Clean Water website. Over $20,000 has been raised towards the $30,000 goal to date.
American Insurance is proud to support our Local Heroes like James!