The public
Professionals
State organizations, ground water businesses, and individual ground water professionals are encouraged to inform their communities about the importance of ground water as a resource.
Some easy steps you can take to inform your communities about ground water include the following.
- Send a letter to the editor at your local newspaper. Use our sample letter to the editor to copy and paste into a document on your computer. (Note: Many publications accept letters to the editor via e-mail, making letter submittal potentially quick and easy.)
- Host an open house at your business during Awareness Week.
- Place radio spots on local stations. NGWA has recorded radio ads promoting water well maintenance you may customize. E-mail ctreyens@ngwa.org to order a CD containing the ads and then use our script to add your customized tag line to the spot.
- Place an advertisement in your local newspaper promoting water well maintenance. You, or the newspaper, can download the advertisement here or have your the newspaper contact NGWA's Cliff Treyens to get the ad in a different format.
- Download an Awareness Week flier or poster for posting or distribution. These can be saved to disk and printed at your local quick print shop.
- Customize a news release and send it to your local newspaper. Use our sample news release.
- PDFs of consumer-oriented "Clip & Copy" series from Water Well Journal® are also available for downloading and distribution to potential customers and the general public.
Educators
Here are some resources that teachers can use during Ground Water Awareness Week and throughout the year:
- NGWA educator resources. NGWA has compiled a list of resources to help elementary and secondary education professionals prepare lesson plans on the subject of ground water. These resources and materials may also be useful to anyone interested in informing themselves and others about ground water.
- The U.S. EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water has online activities for children.
- Wally & Deanna's Groundwater Adventure is an educational book providng a uniquely styled, illustrative approach to teaching children about water resources and the environment, and introduces them to some of the basic issues surrounding ground water resources protection and management. It can be purchased through the NGWA store. (The book is written by Leanne Appleby and Peter Russell, illustrated by Fortunato Restagno, and published by Waterloo Hydrogeologic Inc.)
- Get a kid's point of view on water wells and ground water by reading the brochure Katie's Well: A Kid's Guide to Water Wells and Groundwater. (Distributed with permission of the South Atlantic Well Drillers Association.)