buyameter

At the AIGA national conference in October I picked up a t-shirt with 425 printed on it, in exchange for the agreement that I would donate to their cause.

There were newspapers in each of the attendee bags that we assembled... with our dirty black ink stained hands the day before the conference began. Halfway through our morning of assembling, we finally took a look at this one piece. The cover states "Oprah has one" and goes on to list other noteworthy people who have one. They even state that you have one. But these people don't have one. There are pictures of individuals and couples and families. And they don't have water meters.

They're buying water meters for people in Hale County, AL, who can't afford to even get water into their homes. Just for the record, my volunteer team leader said we could take shirts with the goal that collectively we can donate $425, the cost of one meter. (most of us couldn't afford to attend the conference... hence the volunteering...)

I don't remember where I first heard about Project M, but it's one of those design projects that I hear about once in a while. Each group of students chooses a different project—one year they assembled an old ambulance full of supplies to deliver to Katrina victims, another year I think they studied in Costa Rica. The most recent project is buyameter. Donations go to HERO and while money and meters are great, I think part of the solution is awareness of poverty. I've donated to wells in Africa, but some American homes don't have water meters? Okay. I realize that helping people anywhere is a good idea. Here. There. Wherever. And we can't all be so America-focused that we don't help anyone else, or so ego-centric that we don't realize we can help beyond America... but we can do what we can to help our fellow citizens.

They were inspired by Samuel Mockbee and his Rural Studio project with students from Auburn. I was in New Orleans with some girlfriends for New Years 04–05 and picked up his book at the Museum of Southern Art's gift shop. I'd never heard of the project, but loved the cover. I admit. I judge. I love finding souvenirs like this. It's sitting on my coffee table at this very moment and often provides inspiration during my occasional -okay, frequent- solo meals...

anyway. my point in all this to say I finally did something I said I'd do a couple months ago. typical. I'm such a space cadet.