Dreams With Wings Campers Experiment with Filtration

Education and OutreachIt was a beautiful day for Dreams With Wings campers to spend a little time outside learning about water and part of the process it takes to make it safe to drink.

Sitting on the steps of St. Andrew Episcopal Church in the Highlands, Louisville Water Educator, Talleri McRae, dove right into the day’s lesson: filtration.

She started by acting out ways we use water everyday while campers gleefully guessed what she was doing. Drinking it, brushing her teeth, washing her hands, cooking. Then it was their turn to demonstrate.

They showed how you can take a shower, swim, and water plants. Water is everywhere!

But it’s not as simple as taking the water straight from the Ohio River. Filtration is necessary to clean the water. Campers learned quickly that filter means to separate and that’s when the real fun happened!

Divided into three groups of ‘scientists’, volunteers from each one chose a different filter and tested it. Using sponges, sand, and cotton balls, they determined the sponges worked best out of the three to get clean water in the quickest amount of time.

Hands-on learning and interaction is an important part of the camps for both Louisville Water and Dreams With Wings.


“Our camp activities include everything we can possibly do to spark creativity, physical activity, and social/emotional wellbeing,” said Dreams With Wings Teen & Young Adult Program Director, Heather Sauer.


Louisville Water partnered with Dreams With Wings more than a decade ago through its educational outreach programs. The nonprofit works with children, young teens, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities like Down Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorder. Dreams With Wings’ goal is to help clients recognize their strengths, contribute to their community, and pursue their dreams.