Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

July 10, 2008 issue

Treat Your Palate Wine Tasting To Benefit Wine to Water July 18


Story by Diana Godwin Doc Hendley, director of Wine to Water, discusses his photographs of people he has met during his overseas projects. Photo by Diana Godwin

More than 100 wines will be featured at the Treat Your Palate wine-tasting event at the Best Western Mountain Lodge in Banner Elk on Friday, July 18, at 6:00 p.m. Samples of gourmet foods and cheeses will also be featured at the fundraising event planned by the nonprofit Wine to Water and Erick’s Cheese and Wine. Destiny Dudley, a wine ambassador for the Wine to Water, is assisting with the event. Tickets are $35 in advance and $40 at the door.

The Wine to Water relief organization office is part gallery, part wine shop and all business. Wine shelves lie near the entrance to the office and the walls are graced with colorful oversized photographs of the members of communities who live near its well and water purification projects overseas. Annie Clawson, director of education for Wine to Water, said, “There is a story behind every face on this wall.”

Doc Hendley, the director of Wine to Water, is a self-taught photographer who captures the determination of the human spirit in portraits and photographic studies. He took the arresting photographs during water relief projects in Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and India. Hendley became well acquainted with the people in the areas surrounding Wine to Water’s clean water and sanitation projects.

Hendley emphasizes the humanity of the people that Wine to Water serves. “When I am onsite, I often zero in on one face,” he said. “I know now that each face has a name and a story. When you focus on one individual, it is very personal and it makes it all worthwhile. They are beautiful and kind people.”

Water must be both easily available and pure to sustain a healthy population. Wine to Water constructs wells to provide water to needy communities and installs efficient bio-filtering systems to purify it. The nonprofit hopes to develop a training facility to teach the citizens of Uganda how to provide clean water for their own region. Wine to Water emphasizes the creation of community-based sustainable solutions to provide clean pure water.

Diseases such as cholera are spread by contaminated water. The scarcity of water in developing nations such as Ethiopia, Sudan, India and Uganda has been made worse by internal military conflicts. Wine to Water provides emergency water and sanitation resources to populations affected by war, drought and natural disasters.

Women and children walk many miles each day to bring water to their households. Many children cannot attend school because they are needed to carry water. This leads to a lack of education and creates a cycle of poverty as the brightest and youngest members of the community are harnessed to haul water long distances.

Wine to Water projects use local materials, native labor and even equipment created for the projects by the people of the area. An Ethiopian well was dug using equipment made of metal salvaged from old Land Rover vehicles by locals, said Hendley. Bio-filters use locally available sand and gravel to filter water of more than 99 percent of pollutants and bacteria. Instead of bringing in volunteers to work on the projects, the community members themselves provide the labor needed.

The Wine to Water organization has concentrated on African and Indian projects since it was first formed several years ago. Now the organization has plans to develop new water projects in Central and South America and Cambodia, and hopes to establish an office in Quito, Ecuador to oversee new projects in the Latin countries of the Western Hemisphere. Hendley also plans to establish branch offices in the United States, but he is determined to keep Wine to Water a small organization in spirit no matter how many projects the group undertakes or how much the group grows.

The 2008 project goals include the installation of 12 wells in Cambodia, 10 in Ethiopia, and 10 in the Sudan. Wine to Water also plans to install 250 bio-sand filters in Uganda. Wells cost between $650 and $5000 depending on local conditions. Bio-filters cost only $100 and last for 10 years with little or no maintenance. Many of these projects are already completed.

The Boone-based organization directs 80 to 90 percent of all donations to its programs and projects to provide clean safe water to underdeveloped regions where populations suffer from the lack of potable water sources. Wine to Water’s fundraising activities include the signature wine-tasting events, gifts of wine and photographs for donors and the development of a Wine to Water wine label to finance its future projects.

For more information about the upcoming fundraiser, call Erick’s Wine and Cheese at 828-898-9424 or the Wine to Water headquarters at 828-406-5606. For information about Wine to Water click to winetowater.org.

Want To Go?
Date: Friday, July 18
Time: 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Best Western Mountain Lodge, Banner Elk
Cost: $35 in advance/$40 at the door