Many of us take for granted that when we go to the faucet in the kitchen, there will be clean, cool, safe drinking water. For some families in rural, northern Arizona, there is no water on tap in the home. Fetching clean water for drinking, cooking and hygiene is a daily task that often involves driving to a water source, collecting the water, then delivering it to relatives or neighbors who may be elderly or without transportation. When COVID-19 struck, the ability to access clean water became one more thing that was disrupted for these families. 

Knowing that the pandemic was putting another strain on military families on the Hopi and Navajo Reservations, we immediately went to work to obtain funding through a national grant made available by the Bob Woodward Foundation, in partnership with the National Football League.

As part of the Healthy Lifestyles and Creating Community program, our Be Connected program received funds to provide relief to these families. We partnered to purchase 300-gallon water containers for homes with no access to running water. The containers were delivered on the Hopi and Navajo Nations providing families with more consistent access to clean water for drinking and hygiene.

This was just one of many ways that we were able to leverage this grant funding to provide COVID-19 relief to veterans and their families.