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Community Corner

Former Manchester Resident to Walk Across Connecticut, Africa

Amy Russell will be walking across the state for the cause of clean water, stopping in Manchester for a large charity event on July 17.

Imagine walking for seven straight days, traveling twenty miles each day – might sound quite challenging to some people. Then imagine walking for two years in the sweltering heat, traveling 7,000 miles in total – that might sound really extreme to most people.

Amy Russell, the founder and executive director of Walk4Water, will be attempting both of these physically challenging feats in the near future, all for the cause of clean water. The week-long walk across Connecticut will happen in mid-July, and she will be stopping in Manchester along the way for her clean water charity event, Water Rocks 2011.

Russell's walk, the equivalent of 267 marathons in Africa, will begin in January. This team journey would be the longest trek ever by Americans over African terrain.

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Russell, 22, will start with the walk across Connecticut on July 16, and she will be resting in Manchester on July 17 for Water Rocks 2011, a charity event she is organizing in town. Russell said the free event for the public will be a family fun day, with lots of kids games, water games and family activities at Center Memorial Park between 1-4 p.m.

In addition, five bands will be performing – including Little Ugly, a Hartford band, and Supergreen – Pizza Hut will be selling pizza, and a motorcycle show will take place in the Mary Cheney parking lot. Pizza Hut is donating a percentage of proceeds from the pizza sale to Walk4Water, and there will be a “Penny Wars” competition associated with the motorcycle show that will also go to the cause.

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Walk4Water will have a table set up for donations, and announcements will be made throughout the event about the charity and what the organization hopes to accomplish.

“We will have a few events during the walk [across Connecticut], but the Manchester event is our big one, since this is where I am from,” Russell said. “Everything at the event will be going toward a good cause, a really exciting cause.”

Russell’s organization is raising awareness and funds for the cause of clean water in developing countries around the world. Walk4Water is benefiting Charity: Water, which implements community-based clean water solutions around the world.

“They work with communities and figure out the most sustainable way for them to maintain a clean water system, whether it be drilling a well or a filtration system,” Russell said. “They work with any developing country, countries in south and central America, south Asia, Africa, etc.”

Russell’s 140-mile walk across her hometown state will go from Granby to Greenwich. Some of the towns and cities along the back roads route include Rockville, Manchester, Hartford, Waterbury, New Haven and Milford.

She is excited about going on this week-long walk across her home state and building awareness for her cause, but at the same time, she feels some anxiety about the strenuous activity.

“It will be really hard going seven days straight, walking again and again and again,” Russell said. “I’ve done a lot of one day walks, but this is going to be very physically challenging.”

This seven-day trek in mid-July will be one of her warm-ups for the African journey in January 2012. This 7,000 mile trek, the longest ever by American citizens in Africa, will take from one and a half to two years.

“It’s going to be crazy, but it’s going to be really cool, and at the end of the day, worth it,” Russell said. “We’re going to meet some amazing people there, who deal with dirty water on a regular basis. Sub-Saharan Africa is definitely in need the most for clean water.”

The journey will start in Cape Town, South Africa and go through countries including Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, and finishing up in Cairo, Egypt. Her major concern of the trip is all of the unknown situations that could appear at any time.

“There could be Civil War conflicts, wild animals like lions, just anything can happen,” Russell said. “You can prepare for things like that, but when they actually happen, it’s a different story.”

Russell believes that eliminating dirty water is a cause essential to the elimination of extreme poverty around the world. She wants this extremely long journey across Africa to have a significant impact on the public.

“We hope that we can challenge the idea of the impossible and inspire people to get involved in this cause,” she said.

For more information on Walk4Water, log on to www.walking4water.org. For more information on Charity: Water, log on to www.charitywater.org. If people want to participate in the Manchester event as a band or with motorcycles, they can email info@walking4water.org.

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