International humanitarian Salva Dut, a former “Lost Boy” who was featured in the 2010 book “A Long Walk to Water,” will visit Daniel Bagley Elementary on Wednesday to thank students for raising money for his nonprofit Water for South Sudan, which provides access to clean drinking water.
Daniel Bagley is located just on the other side of Aurora Avenue, but its boundaries include the east side of Greenwood and Phinney Ridge.
One of Bagley’s classrooms of 4th and 5th graders raised more than $6,000 to win WFSS’s Iron Giraffe capital campaign challenge, which is raising money for new wells and drilling equipment. The class has held bake sales, lemonade stands and hand-written donation request letters. The P5 classroom is still raising money; you can donate online here. Dut is visiting the school as a thank you for winning the fundraising challenge.
The school is hosting an informal potluck open to the community from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday at the school at 7821 Stone Way. Salva will speak at 6 p.m. and then sign books. The event is free; bring food to share if you can. (You can find more information about Dut’s visit to the school on the school’s website.)
After fleeing Sudan’s civil war in the 1980s to first Ethiopia and then Kenya, Dut eventually resettled in Rochester, New York, as a refugee, attended college and then founded Water for South Sudan. He now lives most of the year in South Sudan, overseeing WFSS’s drilling operations. You can find out more about Salva Dut’s story here.
