Rotary fundraising project to help provide clean water

Coffee drinkers can now enjoy their morning cup of java while knowing they are helping to save lives, thanks to a new Rotary Club program.

Cape Girardeau Rotary member Bill Prost said proceeds from the sales of bags of Green Mountain Coffee will go to provide sanitary drinking water to residents of countries where waterborne diseases claim the lives of thousands every day.

Prost heads Five for Water, a not-for-profit organization that has already helped to bankroll six clean water projects through the Rotary Foundation's Clean Water for Coffee Producing Countries Donor Advised Fund. The funds for those projects came from donations from the five anonymous benefactors supporting Five for Water and matching funds from the Rotary Foundation.

Clean water programs have been a Rotary initiative for about 25 years, Prost said. His own personal and professional interest in coffee, combined with his support of the Rotary projects through Five for Water, evolved into a program to help those who don't have clean water for drinking and sanitation purposes.

"I've been in marketing for most of my adult life," said Prost, who owned a marketing research company in Texas for 12 years before working as a consultant and distributor in the specialty coffee business for another dozen years. It was after reading an article on the subject of water-borne disease by author Michael Crichton in The Rotarian, Rotary International's official magazine, that Prost decided to see if he could use his coffee expertise to help raise money for water sanitation projects.

"I've known the folks at Green Mountain for a number of years," Prost said, who went to Rotary International and met with corporate counsel to obtain the coffee license for Rotary. Green Mountain is producing specially labeled bags of four coffees with the Rotary logo on the bag.

Prost said Rotary clubs purchase the coffee wholesale, then sell it to members or other people. One dollar from each bag of coffee sold will go to the Rotary Foundation and ultimately be awarded through grants to Rotary clubs in Third World countries for water sanitation projects.

In addition to the funds raised for water projects, clubs selling the coffee earn $3 for each bag sold to go toward their own local projects.

The coffee comes from beans purchased from fair trade co-ops and is produced using no herbicides or pesticides.

Pertinent address:

920 Broadway, Suite 110, Cape Girardeau, MO