At the Miss Sixty Spring 2009 runway show, I received a bracelet (a la Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong) for an organization called Charity: Water. I wasn’t quite interested in the charity and the founder Scott Harrison until I read the following article featured in Zink Magazine.

TAPPED IN

Scott Harrison started as a party promoter. Now, He’s promoting clean water and giving remote villages more than just eight glasses a day.

Article by Stevie Stacionis

The water in my glass is sparkling. It’s delicious, clean, refreshing and would probably blow the minds of 1.1 billion people around the world who have never sipped fresh water, not to mention water that’s been triple-filtered and literally sparkles with tiny, infused bubbles. I’m having brunch with Scott Harrison, the lanky, 33-year-old founder of Charity: Water, which in its two years of existence has raise $3.5 million to build fresh-water wells throughout Africa, India, Bangladesh and Honduras. I feel a twinge of guilt as I take another huge gulp of my swanky water while Harrison requests, “tap, please” from the server. Lucky for my conscience, we’re at Bobo in New York City’s West Village, and the chicly eco-conscious restaurant has abandoned eco-unfriendly bottle water from the other side of the planet; instead they’re actually filtering tap water in-house – even making their own delicious sparkling tap water, which is what’s filled in my glass. Bobo charges customers $1 for the stuff, but the beautiful catch is that they’re donating those funds to Harrison’s charity. I remind Harrison of this, and his blue eyes light up, “Oh, I”ll take sparkling!” I give him the update on Bobo owner Carlos Suarez’s plan to make the first drop of about $10,000 in September, a particularly apt time for the donation, as Harrison’s charity is running and amped-up, massive donation drive this month (also Harrison’s birth month) to raise $1.5 million in order to build 333 wells in Ethiopia.

What boggles my mind even more than the fact that this incredible (and incredibly busy) man found the time to sit down to a 90-minute brunch with me is the crazy reality of Harrison’s background in contrast to his present pursuits. Rewind quickly, to a childhood in west Jersey and a strong Christian family. Harrison’s mother experienced the unfortunate horror of carbon-monoxide poisoning and, as a result, she became literally allergic to anything chemical or synthetic. “All my clothes had to be washed in baking soda, Ivory Soap only.” Harrison explains. “And if I wanted to see my mom, I had to wear a hat, I had to makes sure she was standing where the wind was blowing from so it didn’t blow from me to her, and then we could have a conversation. I was pretty bizarre.”

After growing up “a perfect kid, active in my church, leader in my youth group,” Harrison rebelled, growing his hair long and moving to New York City to be in a band, where he learned that club promoters can make a lot more money than the musicians they’re promoting, Within ten years, Harrison had become one of the city’s greatest party promoters, regularly filling up top clubs. “I like people, and there’s no shortage of people wanting to go out and have a good time,” he explains of his success. He also did fashion and music events, even following Fashion Week around the world to throw parties. “My life looked really, really great form the outside,” he admits. “But at 28, on a trip to South America, I sort of hit bottom, I realized I was the most miserable, selfish person that I knew.” This was about four year ago. How on earth did the transition from being miserable in South America to running on the of most immediately successful charities in the world happen? “To be quite honest, I came back to my faith,” Harrison states bluntly. “I started doing tons of blow at night and reading the Bible during the day. “A very interesting dichotomy.” he laughs.

… Read the rest in the September issue of Zink Magazine.

The September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.