With the rhythmic “thumpthumpthump” of his sneakers hitting a treadmill in the background, Chris Free – dripping sweat and winded after nearly 20 miles of running in place – talks into the camera of his cell phone.
As Free trains in preparation for the biggest race of his life, anyone watching on social media gets a crash-course on the importance of clean, safe drinking water, and how they can help provide it to those in need.
In an effort to raise money for a good cause, Free is taking advantage of the race, the 2018 Boston Marathon in which he’ll run on April 16, and of technology, by live streaming his training sessions on social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
So far he’s collected just over $8,500 in donations through the webpage he created. The donations will help provide safe drinking water to vulnerable populations in Africa who every day run a race of their own in search of water fit for them to drink – or at times even no water at all.
A few years back while returning home from a humanitarian trip overseas, Free learned the hard way that he and other Americans take our water supplies for granted: It falls conveniently and abundantly into our drinking glasses straight from the tap, at any time of the day or night, and is perfectly safe to drink.
“I caught my connecting flight home and then became so ill in a New Jersey terminal, due to bad water I had drank, that I fell to the floor and began shaking,” he said. “But I was lucky. I had doctors who could correctly care for me.”
That experience led Free to do a little research on the topic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 2,200 children younger than 5 years of age are dying every day due to diarrhea. About 88 percent of those deaths are directly related to contaminated water.
Fast-forward to 2018 and Free is back on the treadmill, live streaming another run, and telling everyone watching how easy it is to help others get access to clean drinking water.
He’s working with World Vision on this fundraiser.
“They’re the largest non-governmental provider of clean water in the world. Last year they helped over 4.6 million more people get clean water,” he said.
Free knows that live streaming almost daily may cause a bit of overload for his thousands of social media friends.
“It’s a downside I’m aware of, but I think it’s worth it for the cause.”
He estimates that he’s also sent some 40,000 emails asking for donations, and has been trying to get some attention from traditional media as well.
Free is employed as the Creative Media Manager with Orphan’s Promise, a nonprofit agency that currently serves orphans in 61 countries, focusing on six key areas: education, discipleship, nutrition, anti trafficking, community transformation, and family care
A graduate of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and Regent University, he and his wife Jenna have lived in Virginia Beach for the past 11 years.
His donations webpage will remain operational for a day or two after the race.
“Clean water is something that is immediately achievable for individuals, it’s not like we need research and development to solve the problem,” he said. “The solutions exist. We just need the resources to implement them.”
