A Generous Idea

By: Valerie Milano

What happens to a young man who has been a successful business person since the 8^th grade, who by his senior year was earning 6 figures then loses it all when the real estate market goes under? Well, if you’re Jordan Wagner, you start all over again. This time around, he chose to use his lessons and experiences for the benefit of others. While being rich was a nice goal, he rearranged his priorities. On their website he said,  “I had lost everything I had made. This humbling experience helped me realize that I had been living a pretty selfish lifestyle. I decided to change my mindset and commit the next season of my life to helping others.”

Jordan’s father, Philip Wagner has been the pastor of the Oasis Christian Center in Los Angeles for 25 years, and at the time his son was rethinking his career and life choices, he was building awareness for the need for clean water throughout the world. The idea to sell bottled water to the congregation and give 100% of the profits towards new building wells and providing clean water was formed and blossomed. Jordan’s thought was “While you are drinking clean water you are giving clean water to people in need.”

“We called it Generosity water. And in LA, we started rallying others for support including celebrities who got involved and recorded 30 sec. PSA’s for us.  We started managing the project overseas, travelling to Africa – 2 1/2yrs ago – Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopa.  It broke my heart to see how many people don’t have access to clean water. I saw this young kid walking 6 miles every day to find clean water for their family and carrying 45 lb. cans of water.  So I wanted to step our game up a little bit and instead of being a project for a church; going on to be a non-profit organization with a 501c3 status.  We’ve done fundraising projects from marathons to fashion shows with different entertainment people, and we’ve partnered with schools.”

Since the idea was first born, they’ve gotten Queen Latifah, Sheila E. and other grammy award winning musicians together to produce an album of water-themed music such as “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and all profits are going to Generosity Water for the building of new wells. Jordan continued, “Besides the album, we have Jason Kennedy, a host for ENews with Ryan Seacrest, helps at a lot of our events and on our advisory board.  Chyler Leigh from Grey’s Anatomy is a big supporter, plus Robert Buckley from One Tree Hill. “  Many other young celebs have added their support as well as every day people who are generous enough to share their ideas and help raise money for a good cause.

NIGHT OF GENEROSITY: Ben Lyons (E! Daily 10), Jason Kennedy (E! News), Jordan Wagner, Catt Sadler (E! Daily 10), Robert Buckley (One Tree Hill)

More than 3 times the population of our country have no access to safe, clean drinking water. The simple answer is to dig under ground and bring the water up through safe wells. Anyone can get involved whether it be through a fundraising event, purchasing the DVD or just spreading the word.