Guess what?
It’s Birthday Project time again! One of the Zone’s most cherished traditions is our annual birthday gift for Johnny Depp.
Each year we choose a charity which is connected to Johnny’s philanthropic interests and his most recent work. We pool our modest contributions
and make a Zone donation to a worthy cause in honor of Johnny, as a way of celebrating and thanking Johnny for all the joy he has given us over the year. Since Johnny is currently working on The Lone Ranger in the American Southwest and the Navajo people have shown him such a warm welcome, we thought it would be fitting to choose a charity devoted to improving the living conditions of the Navajo people. So the 2012 Birthday Project will benefit . . .
Project Pueblo! Project Pueblo is a 100% student and volunteer-led 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that conducts short-term, low-cost service trips to impoverished areas while raising money and awareness for relevant projects and issues. Project Pueblo is currently focusing on improving living conditions for the Navajo people in the area known as the former Bennett Freeze, a 2 million acre region within the Navajo Indian reservation of 8000+ families where only 25% have adequate shelter, only 10% have running water, and only 3% have electricity. In addition, this area heavily suffers from issues relating to uranium contamination stemming from mining during the Cold War. Project Pueblo partners with various organizations including Forgotten People, a grassroots, community-based Navajo nonprofit organization that has been fighting injustice and poverty for over 20 years.
Sean Wycliffe, the president of Project Pueblo, has agreed to earmark all of the Zone's donations for projects directly related to the Navajo. What can we do to help? Well, Project Pueblo is currently raising money to install water systems for Navajo families that have been drinking uranium-contaminated water because they have no other option.
Each water system costs approximately $1,500, so with the Birthday Project we could provide clean water for two, three . . . maybe even four families! Wouldn't that be a fantastic birthday present for Johnny? And a gift that will keep on giving for years to come.
You can read more about Project Pueblo, a small grassroots charity, here:
This is the kind of effort where our contributions can really make an immediate impact on the lives of Navajo families. Can you lend a hand?
We will be accepting donations through Johnny’s birthday, June 9, 2012.
In these tough financial times, we know that this is not an easy year to find money in the family budget to donate to charity or give gifts. But we also know that Zoners have very generous hearts,
and somehow we always find a way to say “Happy Birthday” and “Thank You” to Johnny, and to help people whose need is far greater than our own. Even in hard times, when we pool our small gifts together, we can do a lot of good for others.
Please join us in wishing Johnny Depp a very happy birthday, and in saying
for all the joy he has given us, by donating to the 2012 Birthday Project.
Part-Time Poet[/n]
Thank you Part-time Poet and Theresa for once again putting together a Birthday Project which is both a fitting and very worthy cause. I suspected it would be Navajo related and am so happy my suspicions were proved correct. 
