In Louisville, we are lucky to have clean, abundant drinking water available to us straight from our faucets. In many parts of the world, that is not the case. Recently, Louisville Water Company shared this important hydration message with members of the Beechmont Presbyterian Church in the Beechmont Neighborhood in South Louisville.
Beechmont describes their community as multicultural and holds their services in both English and Spanish. Louisville Water Community Outreach Coordinator Barbara Crow said that all of the participants of her workshop were Spanish speakers – the majority were immigrants of Nicaragua while a few were from Mexico. Crow used a translator at the event for her presentation to make sure that all attendees know that our water, Louisville Pure Tap ™, is safe to drink from the faucet, even if that is not the case in their native country.
Crow also tried her hand at speaking Spanish, too. She created a word poster with several words that she used in her presentation, including water, hydration, drink, safe, and Ohio River.
“The Spanish words were written beside the English words, and I tried to use the Spanish words when talking,” said Crow. “I also had everything spelled out phonetically, but my four years of French severely impacted my pronunciation. The students were laughing and rolling their eyes while I tried not to butcher their language. At the end of the day, I think the message came across to the participants that you can drink the water straight from the tap!”
In the video clip, the students are saying “hydration!” in Spanish.