Thank you to all who supported Saving the Ipswich River & Watersheds: The Lifeblood of Our Communities Global Grant. And thank you to The Rotary Foundation which provided $27,000 to support this $38,624 grant.
We closed out the grant and wanted to give an update. Over two years, this grant reached over 7500 people via stakeholder trainings, outreach and social media and educated all regarding the need for water conservation as well as providing strategies for individuals and communities to reduce water use. We also developed the water conservation toolkit including creating a website to serve as a landing page for water conservation tools specific to the Ipswich River Watershed in Northeastern Massachusetts. In addition to compiling the material on one webpage, we also developed:
• The Recipe for Resiliency, a ten-step guide to enhanced water conservation for municipal water
• tabling materials to help people engage with the water conservation message at in-person events
• water use stats in each community that uses the Ipswich River Water that can be updated annually
• creation of social media posts highlighting the need for water conservation. These social media
posts were shared with towns to be posted on their social media accounts increasing viewership
• an ArcGIS survey to measure water usage and a dashboard to share the results of household water
use patterns
• personalized flyers for their top 100 water users in Wenham to educate them about their above-
average water usage and strategies to reduce water use in the summer
• And we tracked water use patterns via survey and local water supplier data to understand long-term
trends in community water use patterns.
Our reach was far beyond local, however. For a global grant through The Rotary Foundation, we needed an international sponsor. That sponsor was Ipswich East Rotary in Ipswich England. They visited us in the Fall of 2022 and had their own training session on water conservation. They have brought this message back to their own club and this grant will be featured across England and Ireland in a Rotary Foundation publication to emphasize the need for water conservation in those countries.
Thank you again for all of your support!!! We know a clean, safe and abundant water supply is society's most important resource. We still have a way to go but through our continued collaboration we can make the Ipswich River strong and viable for generations to come!
To make your Annual Fund-SHARE contribution before June 30, you can donate online by clicking here.