Welcome to another exciting episode recap of This Week in Cause! We hit lucky episode number 13 tonight thanks to our hosting company and wonderful TWI sponsor, StormOnDemand.com!

This week we talk all things water. From Blog Action Day’s official cause to our new taste test: Is bottled water worth the extra bucks? Let’s get right into it!

This past week kicked off another Blog Action Day. The purpose of BAD is to rally support for one specific cause using blogs, of course, as a platform. This year’s topic was…you guessed it…water! The White House blog and many other social good sites chimed in on a variety of water-related issues. Did you know that a billion people in the world don’t have access to clean water?! Blogging may not be as influential as it was a few years ago as a lot of bloggers and techies did not know about Blog Action Day- but there still are effective ways to reach mass audiences. Is blogging about causes dead?

Christina just came from a blogging conference, BlogWorld. There was NO mention of blog action day there or on Twitter! Which poses the questions: how do people with no internet access get involved in BAD? Is blogging outdated with new microblogging services like Twitter? Why don’t we use social media streams instead?

We need to address how water affects you here at home and then connect that to how many people don’t have access to such a necessity. There was no one rallying point for BAD. Christina mentions some potential issues maybe next year’s Action Day can focus on:

1- Conservation nationwide
2- Access to water/ clean water
3- Environmentally responsible ways to conserve water

Charity Water is the biggest organization currently dedicated to clean water access and the only one with a focus. Have another great water-focused organization you’d like to share with us? Sound off in the comments section below! One out of six people can’t get acess to clean water; a problem we definitely would like to pitch in to try to bring awareness to here at TWiCause.

Jonathan and Christina move on to discuss the merits (or lack thereof) of bottled water. Is there a benefit to bottled water? What do you think of cause based marketing from brands like SmartWater with the breast cancer movement? Are they supporting a good cause and gaining great PR from it, or trying to get positive press by supporting a good cause?

Jonathan is anti-bottled water. Christina is a supporter. Do you use tap or bottled, and what brands do you prefer. Later in the show, our hosts will sound off on both of these topics.

This brings us to our next water-centric topic and this week’s…

CAUSE WASH

Fiji has replaced Evian as the top tier of bottled water…according to team J and C it’s the ‘Rolls Royce’ of bottled water.

People purchase Fiji because they think it’s a better water but it’s actually not produced with the environment completely in mind. Fiji is one of the furthest countries to ship anything from/to the US. Fiji represents themselves as very cause-based and donates a lot of their product to charity but what else do they do for the movement?

Celeb Cause time! Alyssa Milano encourages people to donate to Charity Water in lieu of sending her a gift for her bday. She’s big on twitter so it’s more to raise awareness then bring attention to her birthday. We’ll still wish you a very happy birthday though, Alyssa, because it’s a great cause you’re supporting!

Next our interview with Jessica Krell- she’s from Our House. Our House is a word of mouth grief support organization. They only provide services if asked, and can help both children and parents by offering a variety of support services. Children are grouped by age for support services and the group waits several months before offering support (since people are generally supportive immediately after a relative passes).

Our House offers art therapy for children, including the inner city community. Volunteers go through rigorous training and clinicians sit in on the sessions to assist. If you want to volunteer, you can call Our House at 310-473-1511, or go to the web site and sign up for a training session. It’s a 1-2 year commitment to the center and a 10 week commitment in school for volunteer opportunities. They also have an annual gala coming up on November 6th. They are 60-70% run by individual donations so let’s help them get the word out about the important work they do.

Rounding out the week, Jessica joins our hosts do a bottled water ‘blind’ taste test with….colored vitamin water. And no blindfolds. Interesting…verdict is…our hosts can actually tell the difference between brands. For the most part (we’re lookin’ at you, Jonathan). It’s a 50/50 split between the hosts as to whether tap water is just fine, or Smart (bottled) water is the way to go. What’s your vote?

Join us same time, same place next week (that’s Mondays at 6pm for first timers HERE)!