Beaufort County Walk for Water is “Reunited”

story by JEANNE REYNOLDS                          photos by PAUL NURNBERG

No one will mistake Beaufort’s Jeneane Ryan and Nan Krueger for the rhythm-and-blues duo Peaches & Herb, but no one is more excited that these two women are to be reunited — at least when it comes to the Beaufort County Walk for Water.

After two years of splitting into dozens of small, group walks during the pandemic, the Walk for Water is welcoming hundreds of faithful area residents back to a large community walk this year, with convenient locations on each side of the Broad River: one at Live Oaks Park in Port Royal and one at Wright Family Park in Bluffton.

Ryan and Krueger led the charge to get the walk up and running in 2017, and they’ve helped keep it on fast-forward ever since. The dynamic duo — both active in First Presbyterian Church’s mission work — rallied four other Beaufort-area churches to create the first walk and have seen it mushroom from about 100 participants to more than 500 last year, raising close to $300,000 in its first five years. The money goes directly to Water Mission, a nonprofit Christian engineering organization based in Charleston that builds safe water solutions in developing countries and disaster areas.

The event’s success doesn’t surprise Krueger. “It almost surprises me it hasn’t grown more,” she says. “If we get enough people who understand what’s going on, they’ll bring even more people.”

How the walk works
Participants pay a small fee (which includes a free T-shirt) to register as individuals or as part of a team of family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, or church members. On walk day, they join other community members at one of the two walk locations to walk three miles together, carrying buckets they can partially fill with water at the halfway point. It’s designed to symbolize the journey more than two billion people — primarily women and children — make daily to collect water for drinking, cooking, and washing. Not only is the trip difficult and sometimes dangerous, but the water is also often contaminated. It leads to water-related illnesses that kill someone every 37 seconds, according to Water Mission.

“It speaks to my heart.”

“We’re so fortunate to live in a land of plenty,” says Ryan, who chaired the first walk in 2017. “We don’t give a thought to where anything comes from, especially water. Imagine living where that’s not the case.”

Ryan doesn’t have to just imagine that grim scenario: She’s witnessed it in person on mission trips to Ghana and Haiti years before the walk was created. “I saw a woman holding her baby and saw firsthand what cholera does to a child. It made me sick knowing that could happen because it’s just from not having clean water to drink. I had never experienced anything like that before.”
“It’s such a simple, absolute need,” agrees Krueger. “Water is taken for granted when you have it, but when you don’t, you die. Clean water is vital to life. If we can live as well as we do, how can we not help others? There’s so much need out there, but we can take little bites out of it.”

The opportunity to help take those bites is a big part of the walk’s broad appeal, adds Krueger, who’s held nearly every role on the walk committee, from organizing volunteers to recruiting sponsors. “People feel like they’re really helping others. They feel like they’re making a difference.”

Bigger than ever and better together
Organizers expect up to 750 participants this year with teams from Battery Point, Cat Island, Callawassie Island/Spring Island, Cottage Farm, Dataw Island, Distant Island, Habersham, Oldfield, Pigeon Point, Sea Island Presbyterian Church on Lady’s Island, Lowcountry Presbyterian Church in Bluffton, St. Mark’s Church in Port Royal, Providence Presbyterian Church in Hilton Head, Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority, and other organizations. Walkers can register on the walk’s website at walkforwater.com/beaufortco as individuals, join an existing team, or create their own team.

“It’s truly a community event,” Ryan says. “It’s like we’re doing it for the first time all over again. I don’t think I’ll ever be too old to want to be part of it.”

Beaufort County Walk for Water

What: 3-mile walk to raise awareness and money for access to safe, clean water in communities around the world through Water Mission

When: Saturday, Sept. 17 at 9 a.m.

Where: Live Oaks Park in Port Royal and Wright Family Park in Bluffton

How much: $20 for adults 23+, $15 for students 16–22, $10 for kids 8–15, free for kids 7 and under. Free T-shirts for all participants. Register by Aug. 13 to get your preferred size.

More info: Learn more and register at walkforwater.com/beaufortco.