Last Thursday, Blood:Water had the privilege of crashing the annual 615 Day block party (okay, we occupied a booth). It was the perfect opportunity for us to engage with the local community in a fun and exciting way!

Coined by Project 615 as 615 Day (which is the area code for Nashville and the day of the actual event, 6/15), the festivities celebrated all things Nashville. We decided to keep it cool at our booth by setting up a Lemon:Aid stand and introducing the mission of Blood:Water to event attendees who stopped by.

The morning started out promising! Caroline, a fellow Blood:Water intern, and I assembled the stand and were waiting for the event to begin when a brutal thunderstorm hit the area. Our tent was nearly carried away by rain and wind. However, we didn’t let the storm take away our joy! After waiting a short time for the sun to return post-rain, we were able to reconstruct our dampened stand for the event and start engaging the Nashville community! 

Those who visited us were eager to hear about all that Blood:Water is doing—especially after being #quenched by our #fresh lemonade. Many signed up to receive email updates from us and learn more about the impact being made in Africa. We even gave away a $50 Chick-fil-A gift card to one lucky attendee who joined us at our booth! 

Caroline and I were able to get to know the people who visited us, and it was inspiring to hear about how many of them were passionate about solving the water and HIV/AIDS crises in Africa. Weather couldn’t stop us or the Nashville community from making a difference!