We appreciate all of our fundraisers here at Blood:Water, so every now and then we love to showcase what they are doing. Our new friend Stephanie Strauss took incredible initiative this past April and was able to raise $1,000 through her fundraising efforts!

Stephanie started hosting a coffeehouse in her local church in Pennsylvania back in 2009 when she was a high school junior. Since then, the coffeehouse has become an annual occurrence, and this year she went above and beyond to make it special. The evening was bookended by two local artists who shared some great music. During the coffee shop Stephanie had local roasters donate coffee and a local potter donate mugs for the event. Each mug was $5 and could be filled endlessly with coffee, hot chocolate or tea, or you could pay $10 and keep the mug!

In a recent visit to our office, Stephanie told me how the HIV/AIDS and water crises in Africa were something that she believed could be solved, and how she wanted to play a part in that in some way. She named the annual coffee house PUREhope because she has hope that through the efforts of like minded individuals coming together over a common cause they can and will make a difference in Africa.

Stephanie, we are thankful for you and for the lives in Africa that are changing because of PUREhope.

Read more about Stephanie here.

Do you have a passion or talent you’d like to use to help Africa? Get started here!