Saint Michael's College

Water for All: A Path to Global Health and Equity
2025-04-09 12:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | McCarthy Arts Center
Water for All: A Path to Global Health and Equity
Wednesday April 9
Panel – 12 p.m. in McCarthy Arts Center
Walk-A-Thon – 1 p.m. in the McCarthy Arts Center parking lot

Walk-a-thon Registration & Donation Form

This campus—and community-sponsored collaboration aims to reflect the mission and impact of SMC students on real-world issues, particularly a lack of access to clean water. ​​The initiative seeks to leverage education, outreach, and community development with our community partner, St. Francis Xavier Parish & School. Groups from across the college are coming together to support the St. Francis Xavier students in raising money for 4 communities in southeastern Mexico to support Healing Waters International with the upcoming project of designing and installing clean water infrastructure in these communities. ​​
The project originated with Father Yvon Royer- SMC Alum, 3 years ago when his former Parishes were involved in helping a Community in San José Monteverde, México, have clean drinking water for the first time. They worked with Healing Waters, a Christian company that works mostly in South America focusing on working with communities to assess what their needs are for water, the possible source, and what needs to be done to bring the Community drinkable water.
Throughout this academic year, Father Yvon has been leading both educational and fundraising initiatives at Saint Francis Xavier School (SFX) in Winooski. Students have heard from speakers, conducted fundraising events at their local parishes, and will participate in a fundraising Walk-A-Thon. To support this initiative, Saint Michael’s College will host a series of educational events on April 9th and the SFX students will have access to everything we have to offer, from our pre-service educators to our MakerSpace to our ability to bring in high-impact speakers, which will build awareness, increase education, and fundraise for clean water projects in the coastal region of Chiapas México, a stand-alone project in the community “23 de Enero” and project Rosalbali which support the communities of Rosarito, Alianza, and Albores.
​On Wednesday, April 9th, all SFX students and staff will be visiting SMC to take part in the series of events. A highlight of this day is a 1-hour panel with Walter Nonemaker, Director at Healing Waters International, Oliver Niyonshuti, SMC international student with personal experience related to lack of clean water in Rwanda, and Judy Dow, local Indigenous Scholar and Educator and Executive Director of Gedakina. The panel will take place at 12:00 pm at the McCarthy Art Center.
After the panel, we will join a call for action about access to clean water as a human right as well as fundraising. The Walk-A-Thon will start at 1 pm, and walkers will gather at the McCarthy Arts parking lot. More information will be available next week. We are counting on our SMC community to make this initiative a success!
Please join us, bring your classes to the panel, encourage students to participate in the Walk-A-Thon, and donate!
