Kids

Celebrating Well #8, Launching Round #9!

October 30, 2023 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

Round #8 is officially DONE! We are so proud of all of the kids who pitched in to sell elephants and spread the word about Set Free so that another well could be drilled in India. This well provided clean water to 6,500 people in Southern India, thanks to 50 kids here in America that decided they wanted to make it happen!

To date, Crowdsourcing Kids have provided clean water to 28,017 people since we launched five years ago. Ready to do it again!? We’re launching Round #9 on Wednesday, November 1st. Here’s what this round will look like:

Each kit will include 9 small elephant ornaments, and 1 large elephant ornament handmade by young ladies rescued from slavery in India.
Crowdsourcing Kids will sell the 9 elephants for $12 each, and the large elephant for $17, generating $125 for Set Free.
When 50 kids each do that, we’ll have enough money to drill our 9th well in India! We’ll be able to give the gift of clean water to a village that has waited a long time for this simple resource.

Ready to get involved and be a world changer!? We’d love for you to get join!

Our Greenville Festival of Trees Tradition

November 4, 2022 Alison Events, Kids No comments

Since 2019 we have had the joy of decorating a tree for the Festival of Trees. In 2021 we were recognized with First Place in the “Organizations” category. This year we wanted to honor our past Crowdsourcing Kids, while hoping to encourage new children to help us drill a well in India. If that’s how you ended up on this page– welcome!

As of right now, we need 40 more children to each sell 10 handmade elephants so we can drill our next well in India. We’d love for you to join! Each elephant kit contains 10 elephants handmade by young ladies rescued from slavery. When you sell those 10 elephants you will have raised $125 for our non-profit partner Set Free. When 50 kids do that, we have enough money to drill a well in India! Thanks to the power of compassionate kids we have given the gift of clean water to 21,517 people since we started just four short years ago.

Order your kit now and if you’re local, you can pick it up from Set Free’s office on Wade Hampton Blvd. If you’re not, we’re happy to ship it to you! Thank you for thinking of others this Christmas season and for giving the life-changing gift of clean water to those who desperately need it.

You Did It! Our 7th Well Report!

February 7, 2022 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

A 7th kid-powered well is now giving clean water and hope to an entire village in India thanks to Crowdsourcing Kids! Back in August on World Elephant Day we launched Round #7 of Crowdsourcing Kids. Dozens of kids, along with Greenville Community Church, sold 500 handmade elephants to fund our 7th well drilling project in India.

Kids CAN Change the World

We are happy to share that because of the combined efforts of kids like Maizey (13), Laila (11), Hannah (15), Elliott (5), Hudson (8), Willow (3), Nash (5), Haven (7), Abel (5) and so many others we were able to make this happen:

Life Before the Well

The villagers living here are low caste. That means they are treated very poorly, and often valued as worth less than animals. Because of that, there have been no efforts to improve their water supply. They were forced to rely on a hand-dug well. But when that water source dried up, they were traveling to an open well outside the village that contained very dirty water.

Third Time’s a Charm

Thanks to Crowdsourcing Kids and our ministry partner Set Free, we were able to send a drilling crew to this village for a life-changing mission. Finding fresh, clean water didn’t come easily, however. It took the drilling crew three attempts before hitting fresh water. But they did not give up! And the village’s 9,562 people are so glad they didn’t! Because now they have a clean water source.

Children Reunited With Families

Not only did this Crowdsourcing Kids well provide clean water for nearly 10,000 people, it also offered an opportunity to restore families and share the love of Christ. Through the drilling of the well, the Set Free partner pastor heard of children that were taken into slavery from the village. The pastor helped free 36 children from slavery and reunite them with their families in this village.

Let’s recap that and let it sink in…

Kids in America sold 500 handmade elephants, raising $6,250.
That money funded drilling a well that gave 9,562 people clean water.
Through the well-drilling, a visiting pastor helped free 36 children from slavery and reunite them with their families.
Thousands of villagers have heard the Gospel and many are part of a weekly Bible study.

WOW! By now we all know kids can change the world! Get your child involved with our next round of Crowdsourcing Kids! We’ll be launching Round #8 soon so stay tuned!

We Made Some Changes With Round #7 of Crowdsourcing Kids

September 7, 2021 Alison Events, Kids No comments

Round #7 of Crowdsourcing Kids launched on World Elephant Day, August 11th, 2021. We currently have less than 20 elephant kits available and we’d love your help to complete this round so we can drill our 7th well in India and bring clean water to another village. Getting a kit is easy! Buy your kit and have it shipped, or pick it up locally at the Set Free office in Greenville, South Carolina. We’ve made a couple of changes with this round that we want to tell you about!

We Switched From Boxes to Bags

You’ll notice that our kits no longer come in boxes. They are packaged in beautiful teal bags instead! We did this with hopes of saving some money on shipping costs. It also significantly reduced the time it took to prep this round during our annual packing party! (Thanks again to our amazing volunteers who pitched in to tag and bag the elephants!)

Each Crowdsourcing Kids Kit Contains 10 Elephants

In the past, each elephant kit contained 12 elephants, 10 smalls and two larges. Now each kit contains just 10 elephants: 5 larges and 5 smalls. When your child sells their elephants they will have raised $125 for Set Free. When 50 kids do this, we will have raised enough money to drill a well in India! So far Crowdsourcing Kids have drilled six wells in India, giving the gift of clean water to 11,955 people since we started in 2018.

We Partnered with Greenville Community Church

For round #7, we partnered with Greenville Community Church. They’re taking this on as a project for their GCC Kids program! They’ve set a goal of selling 100 elephants. Members of the Set Free team will be on hand during a Sunday school service to teach the kids about the water crisis, and what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. They’ll learn who makes the elephants and how selling them helps us share the Gospel! If you’re part of a church that would like to partner with Crowdsourcing Kids, please connect with us! We’d love to work with you!

Next Round of Crowdsourcing Kids Elephants Available Early!

March 18, 2020 Alison Events, Kids No comments

Surprise! We have released the next round of Crowdsourcing Kids elephant boxes! We had planned to release the elephants on World Water Day 2020, which is coming up on March 22. But with so many kids stuck at home, we decided to launch this class of boxes a couple of days early. We know many parents are looking for fun, educational activities for their kids to do and this is a great, positive project you can work on as a whole family.

What Can My Child Learn Selling Elephants?

Selling elephants incorporates a lot of lessons in one activity! They can learn about entrepreneurship by marketing their elephants, selling elephants, and collecting money. They can practice math and learn about money as they sell their 12 elephants and collect $130 to donate to Set Free. Parents can also use this as a social studies lesson when they teach about the world water crisis and what life is like for those who do not have easy access to clean water. Once the well is drilled you’ll get information like this about the village impacted by your work and generosity. Geography can also be taught as you learn more about India and the area where your water well will eventually be drilled.

How Can My Child Sell Elephants?

We know this is a crazy time in history as many of us adapt to “social distancing” and being quarantined. But just because we can’t physically be around many of those in our community doesn’t mean we can’t connect! We think your community is hungrier than ever for POSITIVE news and they want to be a part of making the world a better (and healthier!) place! Expect your elephants to sell FAST! Here are some tips:

Stick with social media! People are using social media to stay connected, and they’ll love seeing something positive in their feed.
Video your kids sharing what they’ve learned about the world water crisis and why they want to help. Check out this video of sweet Olivia showing off her box of elephants!

Posted by Rod Dawn Efta on Friday, March 29, 2019

- - - Have a Wella photo shoot! What better way to lift people’s spirits than with cute kids and elephants.
    - Suggest porch pick-up or add a little extra to the price for shipping.
    - Don’t forget to use #CrowdsourcingKids on your social media posts. On Instagram tag @setfreealliance and @crowdsourcingkids when you post so we can keep up with your uplifting stories while the world feels a little scarier than usual.

How Do I Buy a Box of Elephants?

Ready to be a part of something BIG and make a difference in the world? Buy your box of elephants now. We can organize local pick up for $25 if you are in the Greenville, South Carolina area. Otherwise your box will cost $30 and we’ll make sure it gets right to your door. New this year, every box includes a sweet little gift just for the seller! We can’t wait for you to be part of the team!

Registration is CLOSED! What Does That Mean?

December 14, 2019 Alison Kids No comments

Registration is now CLOSED for Crowdsourcing Kids! What does that mean? It means a couple of things:

All of our elephant boxes to fund our FIFTH Crowdsourcing Kids well in India have been snatched up! That’s great news! It means that when everyone sells their elephants and submits the funds to Water of Life, our fifth well will be fully funded and we’ll be able to drill another well to completely change the lives of an entire village. Want to see the last well we drilled? Check this out!
Since all of our elephant boxes have been claimed for our fifth well, we are now asking new friends to sign up for the waiting list. That way we can notify you when a fresh batch of elephant boxes becomes available. We anticipate the next round launching around World Water Day 2020.

Meet Our Newest Crowdsourcing Kids

We are having so much fun seeing photos of our elephant salesmen and saleswomen from our fifth class of Crowdsourcing Kids! They’re doing a great job sharing the story of Water of Life, while learning about the water crisis.

These three world changers are Caleb, 5, Joshua, 4, and Samuel, 1. They sold elephants door-to-door on a drizzly Friday afternoon. We love what mom Jennifer had to say about the experience, “What a blessing it is to teach them what it means to love others and what that looks like in action. They understand that not everyone in this world has access to fresh water like we do. We’ve had conversations about slavery and the freedom that these elephants represent. And they are walking away from this experience with the understanding that even though they are young, they can still make a difference in this world.”

Thank you boys, and thank you to all of the kids who are making our fifth Crowdsourcing Kids well possible. We can’t wait to show you photos and video from India!

Teaching Compassion: School Sells Elephants to Fund Well Drilling in India

August 14, 2019 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

Sixth grade teachers Jean Crosby and Lynn Connelly at St. Joseph’s Catholic School are always looking for ways to teach students life lessons that extend beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. They want students to learn things like compassion, kindness and the importance of serving others. But, how do you teach kids compassion? With that goal in mind, they invited Set Free’s Executive Director Sarah Kelley to the school to talk about the ministry’s work in India. “Her message was so beautiful,” recalls Lynn. “[Set Free] wants to take care of the whole person, not just the water, but also spread the message of Christ.”

An Eye-Opening Message

Sarah’s stories deeply impacted the students. They learned how children, just like them, don’t have access to clean water, and how others are forced into slavery. The students even practiced carrying jugs of water, just like children in Africa and India must do for their families. Sarah explained how Set Free works to share Christ through the gift of clean water, and cares for hundreds of children pulled from slavery. “I think our little 6th graders found it hard to fathom,” says Jean. “A lot of them did not know there was still child slavery.” Lynn adds, “when they realized there were children in slavery it really touched their hearts. They wanted to do something.”

Can We Sell These?

The teachers knew their students were taking the message to heart because 60 of them sat quietly the entire time, soaking it in. The students heard about how the rescued girls make stuffed elephants as a way to learn a trade so they can gain employment and end a cycle of poverty. “[Our students] were like ‘can we sell these?’ When they heard it was helping others it took on a life of its own,” says Jean.

Young Seamstress Makes Elephant

Elephants Practically Sell Themselves

The students started selling elephants and the goal quickly expanded. The school now hopes to sell enough elephants to fund an entire well drilling project in India. “[The elephants] sell themselves. We just didn’t know it was going to take off,” says Jean. “We had the elephants in our rooms and the kids came flooding in.” The school plans to adopt this project again for the 2019-2020 school year, when the theme will be ‘compassion.’ “I think for the students it’ll be very meaningful that they were able to accomplish this as young as they are,” says Lynn.

Get Your School Involved!

Do you teach, attend, or know of a school that would like to sponsor a well in India or Africa? Selling elephants is a great way to incorporate math and entrepreneurship into lessons. Learning about the country teaches geography and history lessons. We’d love to support you in your goal! Please reach out and let’s change the world!

Crowdsourcing Kids Gives Clean Water to Entire Village

March 10, 2019 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

Crowdsourcing Kids launched on World Water Day 2018. In less than a year elephant sales have helped fund four well-drilling projects, bringing clean water to thousands of people! Last fall the children that sold elephants made it possible for Water of Life to drill a well in the village of Gorrepadu. This is a life-changing gift for the 1506 people that call this village home.

Village receives clean water thanks to Crowdsourcing Kids

People in this village in India now have access to clean drinking water thanks to Crowdsourcing Kids. This well was completely funded because 50 kids sold boxes of handmade elephants! This was an answer to prayer for the people here who struggle to secure work because they’re often focused on finding water. This is a life changing gift for them!

Taking a drink of clean water from the new well.

The plaque installed at the base of the new well says “This bore well is dedicated to Jesus Christ.” It also shares a Bible verse, John 4:14, “But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.”

Plaque hanging at new well

On World Water Day 2019 we will be launching another round of Crowdsourcing Kids. This is a chance for 50 more kids to be part of funding a well-drilling project in India. If you would like to get your child involved, you can purchase a box of elephants on March 22. On World Water Day we will launch the next round of Crowdsourcing Kids. Sign up to be on the waiting list now!

Village residents enjoying new well

Elephants For Sale! Meet Some of the Current #CrowdsourcingKids

August 25, 2018 Alison Kids No comments

And they’re off! Our second group of #CrowdsourcingKids has already started selling their elephants! Many have created videos, sharing their desire to help people they’ll never meet have clean drinking water! We want to introduce you to some of these amazing young world-changers!

Caleb, age 8: Greenville, South Carolina

Caleb age 8, Greenville, SC

Caleb sold out of his elephants super fast, so he came back for two more boxes of elephants! It seems to have sparked a passion in Caleb for ending the water crisis.

Elijah, age 10: Mauldin, South Carolina

Elijah made an awesome video for his mom to post on Facebook so he could sell his elephants. When his mom offered to take the elephants to work to sell them Elijah said, “No mom! I want to sell them myself and deliver them all!”

Olivia, age 5; Sophia, age 8 and Ava, age 10: Peshtigo, Wisconsin

Olivia Sophia and Ave ages 5 8 10

These girls know very well the challenges people in India face, especially those in the lowest caste. Their parents have been on many mission trips to the country so they were eager to do their part by selling elephants and bringing clean water to an entire village!

You’re Invited: Celebrate Crowdsourcing Kids August 11th!

July 14, 2018 Alison Events, Kids No comments

Our first class of Crowdsourcing Kids

They did it! The first class of Crowdsourcing Kids fully funded a well-drilling project in India! Join us in celebrating this HUGE accomplishment with a bash at the Greenville Kroc Center on Saturday, August 11 at 10am. Here are some of the highlights of this exciting event:

Learn more about the need for clean water in India.
Be the first to see the video of the NEW WELL Crowdsourcing Kids funded in India. You’ll see the faces of some of the people whose lives are forever changed because they now have access to clean water.
Enter to win amazing door prizes including four tickets to Christian Music Day at Carowinds thanks to HIS Radio!
We’ll also have 50 goody bags to hand out that include freebies and deals from our partners at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe, Jersey Mike’s Subs, Big Air Trampoline Park and more!
Make-and-take elephant crafts from our creative team of volunteer Girl Scouts!
Live music that will leave you inspired to make a difference!

We’ll also be launching our SECOND CLASS of Crowdsourcing Kids. Our next batch of 50 boxes will be available so 50 more kids can join forces and fully fund another well in India, changing the lives of hundreds of people! The boxes will be available for purchase FIRST at our Crowdsourcing Kids event on August 11. Remaining boxes will be available here through our website. Please RSVP now for this free event and get your kids exciting about changing the world!

Want to know more about what each box contains and what being a Crowdsourcing Kid is all about? Check this out!