Volunteers on a mission to harness safe water for Kentucky county

Dr. Kassi Marshall, a physician, mother and member of the Chavies First Church of God in Chavies, Ky., is on a mission to bring safe drinking water to Perry County, Ky., where parts of the water infrastructure were destroyed in flooding that began July 26.

“People need water,” she said in an emotional phone interview Aug. 8. “We grow accustomed to the things we like — niceties and not necessities. But life is not sustainable without water. It’s impossible to be healthy when you’re relying on a contaminated water source.”

In “Perry County alone, the infrastructure has been destroyed and it may be months before many areas have water restored,” she said. “I’m really concerned.”

Through a series of events that she finds providential, both she and her pastor, Brother Brian Bridges, were connected recently to the Louisville-based Water With Blessings run by Ursuline Sister of Mount St. Joseph Larraine Lauter. The organization distributes water filters — and trains people to use them for a lifetime — around the globe where communities lack access to safe drinking water.

Sister Lauter said she is ready to “go big” in Perry County.

“They have water that is biocontaminated,” said Sister Lauter. “That can take them down health-wise.

“This is something we have to do in an organized,  strategic way,” she said of mobilizing an effort to aid Perry County. “We don’t pick out a lucky few. We have to make a plan for the entire community.”

Water With Blessings is partnering with the Chavies First Church of God — and anyone else who’d like to help — to initially provide filters for 2,500 households in Perry County, home to about 11,000 households.

The manufacturer of the Sawyer PointONE water filters has offered a discount, enabling Water With Blessings to provide each filter, plus distribution and training, for $35 each.

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