The One Drop Foundation celebrate World Water Day with a specially arranged show at The Mirage, and PokerNews release footage of Dan Colman visiting Central America to see first hand the effects of the millions poker has raised for this important charity.
I only got three hours sleep last night. I went deep in the Big $11 on PokerStars. I wanted to tell everyone that I nearly won a lot of money. My ego was bursting out of my chest.
I was half asleep brushing my teeth. The cold-water tap was running. It was pouring down the sink. A child dies every 8 seconds due to a lack of access to water. Nearly 40 people died whilst I brushed my teeth. I spat my toothpaste into the toilet and flushed the chain.
There goes another 10 people.
I am walking home; still in a daze. I walk past a homeless guy. He looks at me. I fidget in my pockets. I can’t find any coins. I have a £5 note in my wallet. I touch it. I think about it. I walk on by.
I get into the house. My wok is filled with cold, dirty dishwater. The noodles look like tapeworm. I run the tap. I clean the wok. More people die. I get into the shower. I am clean. A few more pass by the wayside. I say my gratitude.
“I am grateful that I have water.”
“I am grateful that my awareness is increasing.”
“I am grateful for the opportunity to change.”
“I am grateful that I am becoming a better person through my experiences.”
This weekend was the time to celebrate World Water Day. Did you know that? I didn’t. Not until I saw this tweet from Maria Ho.
An incredible fundraising effort by @ONEDROP raising 6 million at #1night1drop. Happy to be a tiny drop in that ocean. pic.twitter.com/khs7iQntpl
— Maria Ho (@MariaHo) March 22, 2015
She was in Vegas, along with Daniel Negreanu, to support the One Night for One Drop event at The Mirage Casino & Hotel. John Legend was performing, and the red carpet was laden with a whole host of celebrities ranging from the fairy like Jane Seymour, to the beautiful wife of Matthew McConaughey, Camile Alves.
The event raised $6m for people without water.
“Water is the very essence of life and yet three-quarters of a billion people – mostly the poor and the marginalized – still today are deprived of this most basic human right,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, head of UNICEF’s Global Water Sanitation and Hygiene programs.
There are nearly 750 million people on this planet who still do not have access to adequate drinking water. A thousand children per day die from diarrheal disease linked to unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation. 2.5 billion people in this world still don’t have adequate sanitation. Most of them are forced to defecate openly.
Six billion people have access to a mobile phone though.
When Dan Colman failed to tow the party line and talk to the press in the wake of his triumphant 2014 Big One for One Drop success, he was pilloried by the press.
Just before Christmas; Colman, his good friend Olivier Busquet, and World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament Director Jack Effel, joined a delegation from the One Drop Foundation on a trip to El Salvador and Honduras. The poker community was going to get a real look at the manifestation of millions of dollars into the changing lives of everyday people.
PokerNews are releasing a series of exclusive videos to commemorate the trip. The first features Dan Colman.
“The money I invested into this charity makes me feel incredibly proud. They are definitely doing some good work here,” said Colman.
This experience will change Colman; and the next one, and the next, and the one after that. Over time he will evolve into a different human being than the one he is today. His values and beliefs will change in line with the effect his experiences have upon him.
Perhaps Colman could have grabbed that world stage to urge people to donate more money? Perhaps his voice, and his face, could have saved more lives than any financial donation he could have made?
Perhaps…shmaps!
He didn’t.
That’s not who he was.
He didn’t speak to the media.
But he did travel to Central America to get involved.
The boy got his hands dirty.
How many of us can say that we have done the same?
“It’s nice to see them on the track to success,” Colman said of the people whom the poker community’s millions of dollars are helping to transform.
It’s nice to see the same thing happening to you Dan.
