H2-Oh: Birthday girl creates charity water campaign

Graphic+made+by%3A+Olivia+Bragg

Graphic made by Olivia Bragg

Graphic made by: Olivia Bragg

Gifts like Polaroid film, a Hozier record, a watercolor Beyoncè card and a shopping trip were not part of junior Jordan Green’s original plan.

With Bible verses about water like John 4:14 at heart, Jordan planned to forgo conventional birthday presents from friends and family and launch a birthday campaign through Charity: Water on April 11, but ended up with some presents thrown into the mix anyway. Jordan has continued asking for donations in $17 amounts, $1 for each year of her life, to provide clean drinking water to communities in need. With the campaign ending July 1, Jordan has raised $278, enough to provide clean drinking water to nine people.

After praying for a more “mission-minded heart,” or more focus on helping people, and a way to help the community, Jordan found a Charity: Water project on Instagram which led to her setting up her own website.

“I wanted to go on mission trips and stuff but I wanted something I could start right away, not something I have to gradually work up to so I thought this was a good idea,” Jordan said. “There’s multiple verses where it talks about how Jesus is the living water and He’s nourishment and stuff so I thought that was really cool because I wanted to do it for Him.”

Calling the website “water of life,” Jordan, along with participating friends and family, use social media to promote her campaign until she reaches her $500 goal.

 

Connect with Jordan for Water Updates: Twitter and Instagram-@jordeenie

But Jordan didn’t wait until her birthday water campaign to give back. Going hand-in-hand with family dinners and Rangers games, the Green family makes serving a family-wide activity. Jordan’s sister, Madison Green travels with the Saint Andrews Church to sing at retirement homes and various charity events throughout the country. Jordan’s father, Tim Green, donates a portion of Fish City Grill’s earnings to local charities and Jordan’s mother, Laura Green serves alongside the family through church, YMCA and Operation Kindness.

“I really think that [Jordan] has really grown up in our family which has always volunteered for things and have always tried to be mindful of the needs of others and to help out in any way that we can,” Tim said. “I think it’s pretty neat that not only Madison but now Jordan as well have been able to go on trips where they help other people and when they do things for others and are selfless which is pretty neat.”

Close friends, distant relatives and anonymous users alike have donated online to Jordan’s campaign. After all the donations are sent when the campaign ends, Charity: Water will send Jordan a report on which communities she helped.

“Once you’ve gathered all the money and stuff and once your campaign is over, [the water goes to] various parts of the world,” Jordan said. “It takes about 21 months to build a well and to get the water that they need. So you get to see [the community helped] which is cool, but I don’t know yet where.”

According to Jordan, she not only serves by donating water, but will be building houses, repairing roofs and painting in hot weather for her first mission trip to Arkansas this summer with her new church, Saint Phillips. For Jordan, this will continue into college where she wants to “build a stronger faith.”

“My sister’s been really involved with [her new church],” Madison said. “I think she’s just getting like a lot of feelings from God right now and I love it so much. It’s been so cool to talk to her about stuff and …I’m just really proud of her for what she’s doing … she’s putting people in front of her and I think that’s really cool.”

Even though water doesn’t “flow” into her plan to be a veterinarian and attend Texas A&M, Jordan said she realized the impact of water and her own abundance of it.

“It’s not just a necessity need,” Jordan said. “It’s really helpful cultural-wise and even safety because a lot of people, especially women, they have to travel two hours to get water and there’s all these different risks that are involved. I’ve never really thought about it but I’ve had such an abundance of water. I feel like once people realize how important this is, to different communities and society, they’ll be willing to help.”