GRO. (Girls Reaching Out) started with 6 sixth graders who realized that girls their age on the other side of the world had to carry water each day instead of receiving an education. Bridget Bullard, Asha Edgerle, Mary Madigan, Jordyn Schipper, Marsella Senti and Courtney Yang began as Girl Scouts. As they learned about sustainability projects over the years, their focus turned to clean water and they wished to talk to businesses in order to share their mission.

 

Their first 2 years (2015 and 2016), they raised money by Christmas Caroling and educating neighbors about African girls their age. They submitted an article to the Sheboygan Press  “Scouts Tackle Clean Water Effort” which explained that they raised $500 so far and are hoping to raise a total of $4,500 to put toward a well in the future. 

 

At the end of 2015, GRO. became 5 when Courtney moved away.

 

By 2016, They met Jeff Elzinga of Lakeland University and a group of Lakeland Graduate students from Malawi.  The Lakeland students created a presentation just for GRO. to teach them about why water is such a problem in their home country.  They learned about waterborne illness, the shortage of trees for shade, seasonal rains and so much more.

 

President David Black and Jeff Elzinga aided the girls by sharing their 501(c)(3) status. This would allow future donors to receive a tax deductible letter to submit to save money on taxes. 

 

Later the same year, GRO. graduated to larger groups like Lakeside Pepsi, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and the Sheboygan Rotary Club. The Rotary Club turned into a great opportunity to help at a special event called “Small Plates.”  The first year, they took coats and cleaned up plates. The second year, they were invited back and GRO. was the recipient of the donations raised for the evening. 

 

In 2017, Father Bob Lutz and John Egan of the St. John the Evangelist Social Concerns Committee chose GRO. as the recipient of their Lenten collections for both St. John’s and Blessed Trinity in Sheboygan Falls. The girls spoke at 4 different masses and raised roughly 4,500 for wells. 

 

When they raised enough money to build their first well, GRO. girls were interviewed for television by WBAY in Green Bay. When asked if they would ever be able to go to see their well, they replied that they would rather any fundraising went to building more wells, instead of them traveling to see it.  

 

It was hard to narrow down the site for the first well.  Several teachers from the original Lakeland University Master students made suggestions. One of the members, Patrick Tembwe, who lived near the capital of Lilongwe, became GRO.’s eyes and ears on the ground. He toured the possible schools to assess if the schools met the requirements and helped make suggestions as to which school was most in need. After much research, Kamwala Junior Primary School was selected for the first pure borehole well. It had over 400 learners and 3 people on staff.  406 families would have access to the well also. It was completed on January 30th, 2017. Patrick was able to send photographs of the truck arriving, and the villagers were so excited about the water. 

 

Over the years, 13 wells were completed from 2017 through 2020.  Kamwala, Kapija, Kapoka, Kaziwa, Boma I, Boma II, Chithiba I, Chithiba II, Bango, Vonken, TTC Machinga Primary School, Mkaka Primary School. 

 

Through the years, the GRO. girls learned a lot along the way.

 

First, they confirmed with their 501(c)(3), Lakeland, that the site had to be at the location of a school. This was because of the type of educational non-profit designation that Lakeland held.  So that narrowed down some requests.

 

Next, they had to make a more elaborate, formal form so that it was easier to compare one school to another. For every school picked, there would be 3-9 applications that would not be picked.

 

They added requirements that the closest working well be at least 1 mile away from the school. They also required that the schools add their GPS coordinates so that they could be looked up on the internet. In addition, the suggestions for schools should not be chosen if the Lakeland Graduate specifically benefited from it. It needed to be objective.

 

It was very helpful that Patrick could travel to the sites. In one case, he found that the school had existing piping for water from the city, so they did not qualify for a well. Patrick was able to send a few pictures of the main school buildings. Most were outside schools under trees. Some of the images were of the original water sources. The water was sometimes a hole that animals used to clean and drink from. Some had makeshift coverings with wood to keep animals out but that wouldn’t last long.  Other images showed a river with rocks that girls would need to walk down while holding their buckets.

 

After the 2nd and 3rd wells were built, the girls learned that some wells fail because no one maintains them.  This caused the GRO. school form to be expanded to include School authorities and local villagers to sign off on their willingness to keep up the maintenance of the well.  If the pump failed, they needed to hire someone to fix it, and they needed to build a wall around it to keep animals out. 

 

In 2019, the GRO. girls encountered their first “bad” experience with a borehole company.  Patrick had given the first 1/3 of the payment to the owner of the company, but he never followed through. Because Patrick checked on the sites frequently and he knew this was not typical, Patrick found a different person to drill the well.  Patrick personally refunded the money to GRO. so that the construction could go on until he could get the money back from the original builder.  GRO. learned that not everyone is a good, trustworthy business person and it is very important to have checks and balances in place. The funds were wired in small amounts at a time after photographs were sent of the progress. Patrick also got to know several borehole companies better and could tell which were good at following through. 

 

In April, Steve Hamer and Deb Wente traveled to Malawi to check on the wells, build relationships and conduct Rotary business. It was incredibly exciting when Steve and Deb pulled into the first school at Kamwala and villagers were dressed in their finest and greeted them with song and dance. The GRO. girls received videos of children using the pump. Papa Steve fell in love with the children of Malawi and their joy for life. 

 

When Deb and Steve reached the 4th well, Boma, they saw a very difficult situation. The school had 5,208 primary learners and 74 teachers and 3,000 families in surrounding areas. When one well is built for so many, the lines are long. Younger kids get pushed out by older kids.  Girls didn’t have to walk to a dirty river or hand-dug well shared by animals but the long waits in line still prevented them from attending school. 

 

Eventually, GRO. business formalized with quarterly newsletters and thoroughly documented file folders for each well completed. Each folder contained the original application, before pictures of the school, GPS coordinate images, location on a Malawi map, process photos, proof of the borehole well number and completed photos. Thank you notes, the cornerstone of their project, flowed as fast as all the water.

 

At a second meeting for The Sheboygan Rotary, the girls were asked how GRO. would go on after they graduated.  This caused the “almost Seniors” to think about their legacy.  So in May, they invited the entire class of 5th graders to attend a session to ask if they wanted to join GRO. (the same age GRO. girls were when they started).

 

The next generation of GRO. started with a hike to Woodlake and empty buckets.  Their goal was to successfully carry the heavy buckets back and see what the water looked like when they got it home.  All of the girls agreed that they would not drink from a lake that had floating dirt and possible diseases from local wildlife. These new 6th graders studied the community around them to find out where there was local need. They made a big list of places they could help and narrowed it down to several projects.  

 

Also in 2019, the dream of a trip to Africa began when a donor offered $5,000 to help the girls with airfare for a trip to see their wells.  Although they had not focused on this before, it would be a great way to assess the longevity of the wells and cap off Senior year with a very memorable trip.  They approached Kohler Company’s division of giving and offered to make a presentation.  An additional $8,000 was donated for the trip.  Kohler Company asked if the girls could take their new water testing technology with them and bring vials of the well water back to be tested. The girls were happy to oblige. 

 

To their surprise, a teacher at Kohler School anonymously nominated the group for United Way Group Service Award of the Year.  They were incredibly honored to receive it at a luncheon and were now among the company of past winners like Sharon Richardson Hospice and Sheboygan Service Club. The biggest difference was that they were merely in high school. 

 

By March of 2020, it was clear that the June trip wouldn’t happen.  All of the trip donors were happy to allow the fund to stay in the account for a future year.  By 2021, the girls were spread out in different states for college and asked permission of the donors if the $13,000 could be used to build more wells instead.  Although they were disappointed not to make the trip, the additional two wells built caused them to go from successfully building 13 weeks to building 15!  This added up to a grand total of $100,000 raised.

 

In 2021, Lakeland University, a fantastic partner for over 5 years, determined that they were no longer able to serve as the 501(c)(3) because of changes to the status of their designation. 

 

In 2022, GRO. discovered a new 501(c)(3) partner in Steve Hamer and his new non-profit called Washforlifeinc.org. By the end of 2022, Washforlifeinc.org along with Patrick Tembwe and the original GRO. formula for borehole well selection, 7 more wells were installed because of fundraising groups called Starfish Brothers and The St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy Starfish Foundation. 

 

Today, in 2023, the current number of completed wells is 24 and our new group is so excited to add to that! GRO.’s new girls are 6 sophomores who have minds for business and public speaking, and they would love to share their ideas with Sheboygan County businesses and families!