Students in Pam Onest's sixth grade English classes at Shady Side Academy Middle School read the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park, about a young boy's struggle to provide his family with clean water in South Sudan. On Monday, Jan. 25, the sixth grade class held a walkathon to raise money for the nonprofit organization Water for South Sudan. With the help of their student sponsors in seventh and eighth grade, the students raised a total of $2,803!

Water for South Sudan drills wells in South Sudan to provide a source of clean water for villagers. Access to clean water transforms villages, allowing children, particularly girls, to go to school instead of spending their days journeying long distances to carry water to their homes. The organization was founded by Salva Dut, who is featured in A Long Walk to Water. After reading and discussing the book in English class, sixth graders created promotional posters and public service announcements, and approached seventh and eighth grade students to sponsor them in the walkathon.

The book A Long Walk to Water tells the story of Dut, who was taken away from his family as a boy because of war and became one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan. After living in refugee camps for several years, he was chosen to go to America and live in Rochester, N.Y. A few years later, he returned to South Sudan to see his father, who was very sick in a hospital after contracting a disease from the water. That is when Dut founded Water for South Sudan to make sure no one else in South Sudan suffers or contracts a disease from dirty water.

Congratulations to the sixth grade class, and to English teacher Pam Onest!

View the sixth grade walk-a-thon slideshow: