On Thursday, Howard Hall will host its annual Totter for Water event, aiming to raise $4,000 to build a water well in Cameroon.
“The Totter is fun and builds a good sense of community,” Marino said. “It also provides a good way to start conversations about the world population’s water needs.”
Although the event begins Thursday at 5 p.m. on South Quad and ends Friday at 5 p.m., Howard already has started fundraising efforts.
“Totter [for Water] is technically a week-long fundraising event,” Marino said. “We have sent e-mails to everyone in the dorm requesting that they gather donations from their friends and families.”
This year, Howard changed the partnering organization for their project.
“Last year, we worked with The Water Project,” Marino said. “This year, we partnered with Engineers Without Borders at Notre Dame. We are able to operate under the same principle of improving water development worldwide, but we are now more specific to a Notre Dame group.”
Partnering agencies are not the only change, she said. Howard has also raised the fundraising goal from last year.
“We beat our goal last year by roughly $2,000. So this year, we made the fundraising goal $4,000, and we hope to beat even that,” Marino said.
Hannah Miller, a junior in Howard, said she looks forward to tottering from midnight to one a.m. on Friday.
“Totter for Water is a really good cause and a good way to build dorm community,” Miller said. “It serves as a reminder about the needs of others, especially with something that we take for granted.”
Marino said the project is having a positive effect on dorm residents’ habits.
“Totter is an environmental reminder to all the members of our dorm,” Marino said. “The project is influencing the girls [in Howard] to turn off water when it is not needed and turn off lights to conserve electricity.”
Marino said water should not be such a scarce resource for the world's population.
“We have to look at the international community and not just our own needs,” Marino said. “This project provides one opportunity to go out there and help people access this resource.”
For more information, Marino said log onto ewbnotredame.weebly.com and to donate log onto ssl.charityweb.net/ewbusa.
