New Goal

This is Sarah again. Riley is VERY close to meeting her goal of raising $2500 for a well. We are beyond excited and amazed. I honestly cannot believe that we started The Riley Project almost 3 months ago and we are already here. It feels like we just started. Riley is still so excited about raising money. All of this has got us thinking...

As most of you probably know, it actually costs $5000 to build a well. Blake and I said that we would donate $2500 if Riley raised $2500. We did this because we wanted to make Riley's goal attainable. Now I feel like we limited her and God. We underestimated people's generosity. In fact, I know of several people who still want to give to the well. I feel like there are probably several more people out there who are feeling the tug to give to the well. I don't want to keep people from giving.

Now, I know that this could look like Blake and I are trying to get out of giving our portion. I can say with a genuine heart that Blake and I would love to give $2500 to the well. We will always give money to help fund access to clean water until EVERYONE on the planet has clean water. Allowing Riley to continue raising money and continue doing service projects isn't about us. It's about not stopping something that seems to need to keep going. I'm honestly disappointed in myself for underestimating Riley and all of our friends.

So here is our new plan. We will absolutely celebrate when Riley meets her goal of raising $2500. We are so proud of her. Riley is the one who actually told us that she wanted to continue raising money for wells even after she met her goal. We are going to have Riley continue to do service projects and allow people to give if they want to. We also have a family who gave $500 to help with the $2500 that Blake and I were giving to the well. Therefore, we are close to $3000 already raised for the well. It would be amazing if we could reach $5000 through Riley's efforts.

Blake and I are going to donate $300 today to start the new goal. We may end up giving the $2000 needed to complete the well, but I strongly feel like there are people out there who still want to give. I would love for Riley to be able to say that she raised all of the money for the well through the openhandedness of her friends and not because her parents stepped in and completed it for her.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already given to the well. Hopefully, Riley will be able to post soon about reaching $2500!