Spreading Awareness

by Brian Reetz, Program Coordinator

Awareness. It comes in many shapes, sizes and colors. It might be something that caught your line of sight while walking down the street. It might be something that you overheard at a coffee shop. It might have come to you as a stern message from someone whose opinion you value in the highest regards.

What is important is that you became more aware! This is National Groundwater Awareness Week and with our mission at the foundation to educate and inspire we share that awareness throughout the year, but put a special emphasis on it this week.

On Monday, we were able to help lead the discussion for the Wellhead Protection Network in Kearney. There were a lot of great thoughts on how we can make people more aware of protecting their drinking water throughout every community in Nebraska. Then on Tuesday morning, we were able to share more messages about the work that we have done in communities in the past year as part of the Natural Resource District Water Programs Conference in Kearney.

This week we also started airing our new radio spots on stations throughout the state of Nebraska and Channels 10/11 in Nebraska started airing our new television commercial (it’s also on MyTV). Earlier today, Jane Griffin appeared on the Clear Water Radio show. On Thursday morning, I will be appearing on 10/11’s morning show to talk about – you guessed it – groundwater awareness at 5:50 a.m. Many newspapers throughout the state have also run our awareness release that encourages everyone to take action in support of groundwater – the water you drink, the water that grows our food. Follow this link for all of our media tools -- http://www.groundwater.org/pe/GGAN/media_tools.html

Here’s something that you can do right now to benefit groundwater!

Rain Bird’s Intelligent Use of Water Awards program invites the public to use the final week of the 2011 Awards program (voting ends March 15) to help decide this year’s winning projects through online voting at www.iuowawards.com. The Groundwater Foundation has worked with Rain Bird as a partner to help promote and support the awards. Three Groundwater Guardian teams have submitted projects for consideration, including Lompoc, CA; Grand Island, NE; and Orange County, NC. Groundwater Guardian is a program of The Groundwater Foundation that recognizes communities of all types for implementing groundwater protection and education projects on the local level.

As you can see, it’s been a busy week but all for a great cause – keeping groundwater safe and available for future generations.