Mentor native Erin Huber wasn't exactly sure how she would bring together her passion for water conservation and international development when she finished graduate school. She'd grown up in a blue collar family that spent summer weekends camping near lakes, streams and rivers, and those early experiences nourished her love of fresh water.

After completing her master's degree in Environmental Studies at the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, she decided to create her own nonprofit organization to bring together these passions under a single roof.

Drink Local Drink Tap is a new organization that works to educate Clevelanders about the pollution that is created by drinking plastic bottles of water and the need to conserve fresh water locally and internationally. To educate both youth and adults, Huber creates water-themed art installations and provides free environmental education at schools.

Next month, Huber will fly to Uganda, where she and her team members will bore a 70-meter hole to provide fresh drinking water to hundreds of residents in a small village there. Currently, children must walk over a mile to find a water source near the village, and the water isn't clean or safe. Huber and her team members also are filming a documentary entitled Making Waves from Cleveland to Uganda that will be released at next year's Cleveland International Film Festival.

For Huber, the project is about sharing the water wealth of the Great Lakes -- which hold 20 percent of the world's fresh water -- with areas in dire need.

Huber, who describes her group as a "very nonprofit organization," is still raising funds for the project. You can donate to the cause on the organization's website.

Source: Erin Huber
Writer: Lee Chilcote