Teen enlists city in UNICEF project

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Emily Welsh is building big, benevolent dreams.

The 18-year-old Mercyhurst Preparatory School senior’s service projects already have taken her to missions work in places ranging from the hills of Appalachia to the poverty-stricken streets of Baltimore. Now she has set her sights on a global need.

When her mom, Anne-Marie Welsh, returned from a New York convention buzzing about the UNICEF Tap project — which raises money to provide clean drinking water to children around the world by funding pumps, pipelines, testing kits and training — Emily Welsh sprang to action.

She contacted the organization to see if she could bring the project to Erie.

Then, with the help of her family, including her mom, and dad, Tim Welsh, and younger siblings, Alice and Bryan, she engaged local media, sending out 300 letters. She also made about 50 phone calls to local restaurants and asked for their participation.

Emily Welsh aimed to raise about $8,000, but soon hit a wall — of chains, that is, when many of the restaurants she contacted were prevented from taking part by corporate red tape.

While only three restaurants in the region eventually jumped aboard, Welsh’s call for humanitarian action is giving the people of Erie — the smallest city to participate in the project so far among heavyweights like New York, Boston and Atlanta — the power to affect change in the lives of others. Many, many others.

According to UNICEF’s Web site, 40 percent of the world’s population lacks basic sanitation facilities, and more than 1 billion people still have access only to unsafe drinking water.

To help alleviate that, the restaurants asked patrons to make a $1 donation for tap water they request with meals. The drive ran through World Water Day on March 22. Restaurant wait staffs informed patrons about the project.