Tens of Thousands Participate in World's Largest Water Initiative

LOS ANGELES, April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 18, musicians, athletes, dignitaries, environmentalists and tens of thousands of everyday citizens in 200 cities, across 81 countries, on six continents around the world, came out to take part in the Dow Live Earth Run for Water – the largest single-day effort in history aimed at raising awareness and funds for the safe drinking water crisis.  The events consisted of a series of 6km run/walks (symbolic of the average distance many women and children walk every day to secure water), many of which were combined with live concerts and water education activities to ignite a global movement for clean, safe, drinking water.

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"It was incredible to be part of this global movement for such a great cause," said Pete Wentz, artist, activist and Live Earth supporter.  "I hope this event inspires people to continue to do their part to help put an end to this worldwide crisis."

Events took place in some of the largest countries in the world, including the United States, China and Canada, as well as some of the smallest countries, such as Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and St. Lucia.  The most well-attended events spanned the globe, including Buenos Aires (7,000 race participants), Mexico City (7,000), the United States (6,000), the Dominican Republic (4,000), Lima (4,000) and many more.  Each run/walk included unique elements to engage the local community with the issue of the global water crisis.  For example, in Jakarta, children raced around their school carrying four liters (approx. one gallon) of water to illustrate how the crisis affects other children in their part of the world; in Crede, Colo., community members and country musicians walked 6km along the Headwaters of the Rio Grande to illustrate the importance of conservation in our wetlands.

World-renowned artists joined forces to champion the cause, including Paris Bennett (Minneapolis); Hins Cheung (Hong Kong); Collective Soul with special guest Sam Moore (Chicago); Custom Kings (Melbourne); Electrico (Singapore); Estelle (Minneapolis); Melissa Etheridge (Los Angeles); Kany Garcia (Mexico City); Kevin Johansen + The Nada (Buenos Aires); Jorge Ben Jor (Rio de Janeiro); John Legend (New York); The Parlotones (Cape Town); Tim Rogers (Melbourne); The Roots (New York); Sandoval (Mexico City); Skipping Girl Vinegar (Melbourne); and Rob Thomas (Atlanta).  Additional supporters included Alexandra Cousteau, Pete Wentz, Angelique Kidjo, Carl Lewis, Kara Goucher, Jenny Fletcher and The Prince of Orange.

The Dow Live Earth Run for Water enlisted the support of more than 30 NGOs worldwide to serve as partners in the mission to raise awareness and funds to help solve the global water crisis.  This includes event beneficiaries, such as Global Water Challenge, A Child's Right, Akvo, arche noVa, Espacio Aqua, Fondo Para La Paz, Indonesia Water Partnership, Instituto e, Lakarmissionen, International Riverfoundation, Lien Ad, Pump Aid, The Salvation Army and Wildlands Conservation Trust.  For the comprehensive list of Live Earth's NGO partners around the world, please visit http://liveearth.org/runforwater/partners.  

In addition to consumer participation in the events themselves, the Dow Live Earth Run for Water saw significant online participation through social media channels worldwide, including 10,000 MySpace members and many others downloaded event-specific applications and widgets; the run/walk encouraged more than 20,000 tweets, with 3,000 taking place on the day of the event, reaching an estimated audience of more than 15 million people; and more than 40 million impressions and interactions on Facebook, which drove global awareness with users in more than 40 countries.  People uploaded thousands of photos that were posted across Flickr, Facebook and Magnify, as well as more than 500 videos on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and other web video networks.

The Dow Live Earth Run for Water gave people around the world the opportunity to RUN in a run/walk in their community or organize their own run/walk through the Friends of Live Earth program, SAVE water in their home and local community through conservation efforts, GIVE money to support clean, safe water projects and SPEAK UP by signing the Live Earth petition to express their support that everyone should have access to clean water.

"It is our hope that the tens of thousands of people who participated in the Dow Live Earth Run for Water events around the world will encourage their friends and family to help solve this crisis," said Kevin Wall, founder and CEO of Live Earth.  "The Dow Live Earth Run for Water was designed to ensure that the solutions implemented and conservation efforts started on April 18 will continue long after the event."

A one-hour special offering audiences an inside look at the global event and its mission to help solve the world water crisis is scheduled to air on Friday, April 23, at 7 p.m. (ET/PT) on Bravo.  Through discussions with impassioned advocate Pete Wentz and water crisis expert Alexandra Cousteau, discovery of solutions being implemented by NGO partners all over the world, and amazing musical performances from events taking place in the United States, the special will illustrate how the global water crisis affects people in every part of the world and how this issue can be solved through specific actions.

"Dow is proud of the success garnered through the Dow Live Earth Run for Water events and activities that took place in 200 cities this past weekend," said Ian Barbour, general manager at Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of Dow.  "This event truly drove home the 'human element' that will be required to help solve one of the world's greatest challenges of our generation – the global water crisis – and as a company we remain steadfast in our commitment to solving this epidemic."

For more information about the Dow Live Earth Run for Water events, please visit http://liveearth.org/run.

About Live Earth

Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, Live Earth was built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action.  A for-profit company, Live Earth seeks to leverage the power of entertainment through integrated events, media and the live experience to ignite a global movement aimed at solving the most critical environmental issues of our time.  More information about Live Earth can be found at http://liveearth.org.

About Dow

Dow combines the power of science and technology with the "Human Element" to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2009, Dow had annual sales of $45 billion and employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 214 sites in 37 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

SOURCE Live Earth