Young alumnus’ well overflowing
by Leah Riley, a senior from Harrodsburg, Ky.
WILMORE, KY—Dave Greider ’07 helps provide clean drinking water in Uganda from his job in Hollywood. Greider works as the director of post production at Oasis Christian Center in Los Angeles. Oasis founded Generosity Water in 2006 to find solutions to end the clean water crisis around the globe.
Greider and his production team are working with Generosity Water to inform and educate people about this crucial global issue. They are also raising the funds necessary to build wells in villages and towns that lack access to clean drinking water.
In one year, Generosity Water raised more than $100,000 dollars, and funded the building or rehabilitation of 13 wells: two new wells in Uganda and Malawi, one new well and six rehabilitations in the Central African Republic, and four hand dug wells in Ethiopia. Generosity Water has several initiatives, but the most popular is bottled water. When you buy Generosity Water, 100 percent of the profits go toward building those clean water wells. The average cost of a village well is around $4,000.
“I’ve never seen a more welcoming environment of people who are incredibly passionate about serving God,” Greider said. “There is a culture of people committed to practically living out what it means to love God and love people. Talk about a rare thing to find in the heart of LA.”
Greider commented on the importance of this initiative, “There are 1.1 billion people, that’s 1 out of 6 people on the planet, who don’t have access to clean drinking water. In those areas, women and children have to travel an average of 3.75 miles just to collect water from contaminated sources. This means many kids, mostly girls, can’t go to school because they have to collect water for their families. It also impacts the economies of the village, because they have no sources for irrigation. The solution to all these problems is simple: build wells.”
Since Generosity Water is tightly connected to Oasis, all of its media and public relations come from the church’s marketing and production departments. Greider works alongside the director of Generosity Water and Oasis’s marketing director to create the branding and marketing materials for the organization. Greider’s team has created Public Service Announcements featuring Chyler Leigh from Grey’s Anatomy, Jason Kennedy from E! News, Mayhem from American Gladiators, and Rebecca Mader from Lost. Generosity Water is also the official water for the Grammy awards, and is working to do the same for the Emmy and the Oscar awards.
“God is showing me that His ways are not my ways,” Greider said. “Working for the Oasis has been the most rewarding job I could imagine. It is exactly where God has called me. I get to lead a team creating projects that change people’s lives and spread awareness of global issues. I’m challenged to grow more now than ever before.”
Released: Nov. 7, 2008
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Tagged: features, media-communications and alumni
