H2OKits.com Water Blog

Leon McLaughlin is a businessman of many talents. He has sold coffee machines in Canada, earned a real-estate license in California, and now owns and runs a shoe-shine stand in central Seattle. He recently had an experience that changed his life and unexpectedly led him to start another business.

How it began

While traveling on a vacation to Mexico, a local woman told Leon a story that changed his life. She had a get-together at her home earlier that week. A well-meaning American visitor asked to use her bathroom. When he came out, he explained that he helped her out by draining the extra water that was stored in her bathtub. The woman broke down into tears. "You see, that was my water for the entire month," she explained to her American guest. Not only did it bring Leon's Mexican friend to tears, but it also brought him to action. He immediately knew what had to be done: find a way to bring clean water to the world's poor, especially children.

Where to start

But where to begin? His experience was in local business and sales, not international relief work. After some investigation and enrollment in water systems repair and maintenance classes, Leon decided to establish another business. This time he would start a non-profit, to bring his clean water equipment to the developing world. LAM, LLC — or Leon A. McLaughlin — was founded with one mission: to address the critical need of the world's clean water shortage by buying and sending purification equipment to where it is most needed. With the need for clean water in so many countries around the world, Leon sought the advice of an organization with some experience: World Vision. "When I initially called World Vision to share my clean water vision with them, to my surprise, they listened with open minds and open hearts," he explains.

The solution

As a World Vision donor, Leon now ensures that his equipment will reach its destination safely. World Vision has the staff and humanitarian development infrastructure to work alongside the communities where his water filtration equipment is located. The first water filtration machine was donated to World Vision and sent to Bolivia shortly after floods ravaged the country in February 2008. As his non-profit gained momentum, so did his publicity. After a series of articles were written about him in Seattle newspapers and NBC Nightly News noticed the story, they interviewed Leon for a feature in their "Making a Difference" segment, which aired on Jan. 9.

'A desperate need for clean water'

During his December trip to Bolivia with World Vision to see his filtration systems at work in several communities, and meet with local officials, Leon was touched even more deeply. "It's almost like seeing another Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., when you see how the children and their families are displaced," he said. "You could see that there was a desperate need for clean water. "The children had hope in their eyes, and need help. I'm glad that I'm part of this mission with World Vision, to be able to bring these children and their families clean drinking water." World Vision

This Saturday, November 15, 2008, at 12:00 p.m. (EST) a winner was drawn for our Pitcher Water Filter Give Away. All the participants had to do to be included in the give away was be an active follower of us (H2OKITS) on Twitter.com. A twitter membership is FREE and allows a very simple way to communicate the idea of what you are doing. The winner was iammrbill. We have sent Twitter use “iammrbill” a direct message via Twitter.com to contact us so we can get further information about who they are. As of today, we have not heard from iammrbill but once we do, I will update you all about our winner. Thanks to everyone that participated.

PepsiCo Inc. announced that its Aquafina bottled water comes from the same sources as municipal tap water. For years now, we have been encouraging our customers to stop drinking from plastic bottles and start filling your glass from the tap. Like Aquafina, most bottled water is filtered municipal tap water that is very expensive. Pepsi stated that the water used for Aquafina goes through a seven-step purification process or a seven stage purification system. That's great, but we have eight stage water filters that have a 160,000 gallon capacity for less than $300.00. That would be equal to 1,024,000 twenty once bottles of water which would cost you over 1 million dollars. That's not taking into consideration the environmental impact caused by the solid waste and the energy to product the product. Now, you can have your own eight stage water filter for less than $300.00 and enjoy pure, crisp drinking water or continue buying bottled tap water.