Pete Savard has been fly fishing since 1992, but has spent the last four years increasing his aquatic endeavors from fishing to providing safe sustainable drinkable water to people who do not have this precious and necessary resource for health and life. As the founder of Global Water Consortium (GWC), Pete has focused on bringing experts together to develop solutions to make water safe and highly portable. GWC’s water projects can be pulled behind bicycles, placed in canoes, or now moved from village to village on stand up paddle boards (SUPs) along remote river systems.
The ability to use SUPs to move this equipment can only happen because SUPonthefly boards have a tremendous capacity to hold weight as well as lots of tiedowns to secure the expensive and sensitive equipment. These characteristics are not on any other boards in the marketplace today. In addition to having exceedingly high cargo capacities, these boards are also easy to paddle and control while loaded down with this life saving equipment. All these reasons make SUPonthefly boards the only SUPs we use at GWC! You can visit the GWC Facebook page to see pictures of the equipment we used in India this past year.
This summer, a small team, including proud SUPonthefly ambassadors, Pete Savard and his daughter, Ainsley, will embark on an adventure using the water filtration and purification equipment used for projects in the developing world. Traveling on a SUPonthefly Guide and Streamer, the team will paddle down the Susquehanna River from its start in Cooperstown, NY to its terminus in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
They will be completing the 30-day, 444-mile trip to honor the 126,540 children who will die in India and Kenya due to unsafe water during this same timeframe. India and Kenya are the first two project sites for GWC and their goal will be to raise $1 USD in honor of each one of these children. This will allow the team to expand the current project in India, complete the project in Kenya, and go back to do a second project in India.
GWC is excited about their adventure this summer and hope you will follow them on FB, Instagram, and Twitter as they show how a simple solution could be to answer a health problem. They will also showcase SUPonthefly boards and demonstrate their awesome features. Pete is planning to have a few fly rods on his board to try some fishing along the way! GWC looks forward to seeing you out on the water as they explore the Susquehanna, which is listed as the third most endangered river in 2016. This trip will showcase how GWC can impact the health of lives of many abroad and at home. #SUP4WATER
You may contact Pete or Ainsley at pete.savard@globalwaterconsortium.org. And visit us on Social Media (FB, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) or at www.globalwaterconsortium.org