Generally, when someone asks me what I want for my birthday, I tell them I don't want anything. I have everything I could ever possibly need to survive: food, WATER, shelter, clothing, cameras.... An all expenses paid trip to Sweden would be nice, but there are grants for that.

So this year, I'm giving my birthday up.

I'm turning 29 years old and I'm asking for $29 from everyone I know to build freshwater projects for communities in developing countries. If $29 is too much, something less, no matter the amount, is a great help. And of course, more is always appreciated!

My goal is to raise at least $580 (that's $29 from 20 people), but I hope we can do more.

Almost 1 billion people in the world are living without clean water -- but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 30,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but still have to walk hours each day to get dirty water for their families.

The best part: 100% of all donations go directly toward water projects. And about 18 months after this campaign ends, charity: water will show us where and how every dollar we raised ended up helping in the field. We'll see GPS coordinates, photos and more details about the communities we've impacted.

Please join me.