CREVE COEUR, Mo. – Thursday was World Water Day and a Creve Coeur family got a real idea of what that even means. For two weeks, 6-year-old Carter Franks is challenging herself to drink nothing but water.
"Water is healthy for you," Carter said. "You need to be big and strong."
All right. It was actually her mom's idea.
"We have to be a role model if we're going to ask other people to do it as well," said Alex Franks, Carter's mom.
Franks recently came across some alarming news.
"It caught my attention because they were talking about Cape Town, in South Africa, and I'd actually visited there my senior year in high school," she said. "The story was about how they were going through a water shortage."
The government ordered residents to scale back.
"Just think about having to do that as a parent," she said. "You have to prioritize, 'Okay, maybe I shouldn't drink water today. I'll give it to my children.' So that's what gets me emotional. That some families in that area can't do anything about it."
Franks realized she can do something about it.
"My water challenge is encouraging people to put down your Starbucks, your sports drinks," she said. "Just put those down for a couple weeks."
Americans tend to spend at least $20 on drinks a week. Franks wants people to donate money they would have spent on drinks to her campaign, which will reach people in Africa. Her goal is $5,000. It's called the Clean Water Challenge and it's through a non-profit organization called the Water Project, Inc.
Cater knows giving up the sweet stuff can be hard.
"I like to drink juice, soda," she said.
Another option? Make small changes like turning off the water when brushing your teeth.