Tap Project 2008

RESTAURANTS NATIONWIDE UNITE TO SUPPORT UNICEF'S WATER PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AROUND THE WORLD

Grassroots Initiative Calls For Restaurants to Invite Customers to Donate $1 for Tap Water They Usually Enjoy For Free

Volunteer Drive Draws More Than 1,300 Nationwide

Next month, the Tap Project goes nationwide with thousands of food and beverage outlets participating to help UNICEF provide clean water to children around the world. Slated to take place during World Water Week 2008 (March 16-22), the grassroots initiative invites individuals to donate $1, or more, for the tap water they normally get for free at participating restaurants.

Thousands of New Yorkers and 300 restaurants took part in the first Tap Project on March 22, 2007, raising over $100,000. This year, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF will engage communities by mobilizing volunteers nationwide with the goal of raising awareness of the Tap Project and recruiting restaurants to participate in the initiative. So far, more than 1,300 volunteers have signed up to recruit restaurants and promote the Tap Project, with dozens being added every day to the roster. American Express, the project's National Supporter, will work with UNICEF to engage its restaurant partners and trade constituents about how they can be a part of the Tap Project.

In the major markets, 14 of the nation's leading creative agencies are tailoring on a pro bono basis special ad campaigns that will place the Tap Project on everything from t-shirts and taxi tops to billboards and major landmarks. The agencies are: Saatchi & Saatchi, New York; Hill Holiday, Boston; Empower Media Marketing, Cincinnati; Energy BBDO with OMD, Chicago; Publicis Mid America, Dallas; TBWA/Chiat/Day with OMD, Tequila and Porter Novelli, Los Angeles; Trumpet, New Orleans; Wieden & Kennedy 12, Portland; Fishtank, San Diego; Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco; Cargo, Greenville, Charleston, Columbia; Publicis West & Publicis Consultants PR, Seattle; Nonbox, Milwaukee; and Virginia Commonwealth University's Brandcenter, Richmond.

"We are overwhelmed at the numbers of volunteers, industry leaders and restaurants that have pledged to make the Tap Project a success this year," said Caryl Stern, president and CEO, U.S. Fund for UNICEF. "It simply underscores the widespread desire to work together to provide clean and safe water to millions of children."

A Tap Project online community has gone live to allow everything from restaurant and volunteer recruitment to the easy dissemination of learning materials. Vistors to the site, with the help of a Google map, can identify retaurants nationwide participating in the Tap Project this year. It is accessible at tapproject.org.

More than one billion people do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation and one in five of them are children. Eighty percent of all illness and infant mortality is due to waterborne disease. Lack of clean water is the second largest killer of children under five.

UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices. Over the past 15 years, more than a billion people gained access to improved drinking water and sanitation facilities. UNICEF's goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2015. A little goes a long way - for example, with $1 UNICEF can provide 40 liters of safe drinking water, which is enough to give one child safe drinking water for 40 days, or forty children safe drinking water for one day.

The Tap Project is made possible, in part, through the support of American Express, Turner Broadcasting, Esquire magazine, open