CRMS Student Leads Awareness During Anti-Poverty Week;
Leads Fundraising Project for PlayPumps International 

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP –  When he was in seventh grade at Chestnut Ridge Middle School, Matt Spadafora participated in a video conference that spurred him into action.  After conferencing with United Nation workers who discussed the problems of poverty and the mortality rates of children worldwide, Spadafora committed, along with his teacher Lori Bathurst, to the sale of anti-poverty bands to promote awareness to raise money.  Now an eighth-grade student, he used a $500 grant to purchase 500 anti-poverty bands that he will be selling for $2 apiece during Anti-Poverty week October 12-18, 2008. 

Spadafora plans to use the monies raised, and some $500 donations that he has already garnered from the Washington Township Chamber of Commerce and WT Rotary Club, to sponsor PlayPumps International , an organization that installs innovative, sustainable patented water pumps that double as merry-go-rounds and are powered by children at play.  While children spin, clean water is pumped from underground into a 2,500-liter tanking standing seven meters above ground.  Adults and children can then draw water from a simple tap.

“It’s amazing how something so small can change such a big problem,” Spadafora said.  “A system like that usually costs around $14,000 and lasts ten years, so I am asking for community donations to see how close we can come to funding the full cost.  I think raising awareness about the issue is as important as raising funds.  When you start looking at the facts, you realize how different other countries’ quality of life is from ours.”

Contributions to Spadafora’s PlayPump fundraiser can be made by checks payable to Chestnut Ridge Middle School and mailed to Ms. Lori Bathurst, PlayPump for Washington Township, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, 641 Hurffville-Cross Keys Road, Sewell, NJ 08080.

- WTPS -

(Back to wtps.org)