Thirteen-year-old Scotty Parker has had a mission since he first saw a video when he was 7.
The video revealed to him things that would grip him for the next six years. He was blown away by images of children drinking out of a mud puddle in a third-world country.
Scotty decided that no child deserved to live like that.
A native of Hanahan, Parker visited Laurence Manning Academy with his mother last week as a part of his mission to spread the word about his cause. He explained to his peers how families in certain countries must walk a whole day with a jug to fill it with dirty drinking water to take back to their families.
He thought the world had clean drinking water until he saw the pictures at the age of 7. He further learned that in Africa, instead of going to school, some kids had to walk more than eight hours per day, having to carry 40 pounds of water in intense heat.
“I wanted to help these people, so I started by talking to family and friends to just bring money to my birthday party to donate to my mission,” said Parker. “That day on my eighth birthday, we raised more than $618. That is what encouraged me to do more.”
After viewing a movie called the "Little Red Wagon," about a boy in Florida who walked an impressionable distance to help his town's people after a hurricane, Parker was inspired to take his mission further.
By his 10th birthday, he decided to ride his bike across the state to raise money for clean drinking water in third-world countries. He took his first bike ride 218 from Greenville to Charleston.
“One of the coolest things about my mission is how communities come together,” he said. “I didn’t raise $70,000 by myself; it was little kids bringing in tooth fairy money and adults giving up their vacation savings. Friends, family and people I didn’t even know gave up their whole spring break just to support my last ride. We raised more than $70,000 with the help of a whole community. We were able to afford to build two clean water systems.”
Parker talked of his visit to two of the schools in Honduras that were on the list for clean water systems. He said that he was amazed to see how happy their faces were after the systems were built. He also noticed that the conditions at their schools were below standard. He spoke of how heart-wrenching and eye-opening their sub-standard conditions were to him.
Parker’s 9-year-old sister also raises money to help the needy. She raises money for school supplies for children who are unable to afford them. On her eighth birthday, she invited people to donate to her cause and raised more than $300 for new school supplies.
“Third-world countries are not the only people we help,” said Parker. “We help raise money for clean drinking water at home, too. In Columbia after their last hurricane, the community came together to help us raise money for clean water.”
This summer on June 5, Parker will ride his bike 3,500 miles from Santa Monica, California, to Water Mission’s headquarters in North Charleston, in eight weeks. The distance of the ride will be 75 miles per day with Sundays off.
“Eight weeks on a bike is a long time,” Parker told his audience. “But I would much rather do this than sit around doing nothing about the situation.”
Parker closed his presentation by telling LMA students that he wants to continue to see how happy people are in these remote places when they finally have clean water to drink. He is hoping to raise more than $500,000 to build more clean water systems. He figured the bigger the ride, the more people he can help.
After a standing ovation from his LMA audience, he looked around at the students and made his last statement.
“I want people to learn that it doesn’t matter how old you are or if you have anything to give, we can change the world for the better,” said Parker. “I always quote Philippians 4:13: 'I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.' You can do anything with the power of Christ.”
For more information, or to make a donation, visit scottysride.com.
