On the 31st of July, Past District Governor Shannon Coleman gave us an update on the Cozumel Water Project that was started during her Rotary year as district governor for District 5870. She opened her presentation with a quite clear explanation of funds donated to the Rotary Foundation, the avenues into which they are funneled, and the mechanisms of a DAP grant. She then, with the help of a video, brought us up to date on the first District DAP grant on the international level: the clean water project in Cozumel, Mexico. Many know the island of Cozumel as a beautiful vacation spot world-renowned for its beautiful beaches, luxury resorts, and scuba diving to explore extensive coral and sea life with incredible visibility. But just a few streets behind the tourist area are people living with no electricity and no clean water. Our District grant, which NxNE Austin helped support with $1000, is providing clean water to a high school. A roof-top collection system directs filtered water into holding tanks and then purified three times before accessed by a tap in the school. Before the new system, the school had to buy bottled water and now they can realize a savings of $2500 a school season. There is a parallel system that collects water for general use, as opposed to drinking water. And it should be noted that the system’s holding tanks contain enough water to carry the community through the dry season. This project is serving as a prototype that is already being copied by another District! Also, it is coming in under budget ($48,000) which allows another system to be set up for a second school. PDG Shannon also shared that there is opportunity for anyone to go to Cozumel to work on the project. And finally, there was a lively Q&A period after her presentation.