Fill the Cup: Charlottesville, Virginia is on Tap

Elizabeth Kiem is the online producer for unicefusa.org.

Some years ago, when my husband decided to go to law school and my son opted for preschool, we determined that moving “back home” would best accomplish these ambitions. And so we found ourselves an hour from my hometown, in Charlottesville, Virginia“horse country, Jefferson country, and in September 2002, drought country. The reservoir was frighteningly low. Water rationing was mandated. Dave Matthews was making appeals. And the restaurants were using paper plates.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one impressed by the level of social consciousness exhibited by the Charlottesville community during the dry spell. Gwen Goodkin was also a newcomer that summer. Today she is a Tap volunteer, signing up dozens of restaurants and mounting Tap billboards from Monticello to Walton Mountain.

She’s also gotten her son Jacob involved. He’s made the Tap Project his upcoming “mitzvah” and also, the subject of this super PSA that he produced with a local youth filmmaking brigade, Light House Studio.

Last year the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation matched every dollar raised by the Tap Project in Charlottesville and donated it to a local conservation group, making Tap both global and local!

That’s a glass more than full! Thanks Gwen, Jacob, and Light House!