One Drop celebrated the third-annual “Walk for Water” last weekend at Springs Preserve presented by UFC with a 2.7-mile walk kicked off at Symphony Park by the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and ended with a celebration at Springs Preserve. The event paid tribute to the 780 million people who lack access to water and are forced to walk miles every day to retrieve it. Keynote speeches about our growing lack of water and need for conservation were made by Mayor Carolyn Goodman, Congresswoman Dina Titus, One Drop CEO Catherine B. Bachand, UFC Hall of Famer and former light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin and other concerned residents. Robin Leach spoke at length with Catherine Bachand about the work of ONE DROP and what we can expect at Cirque’s next benefit performance, on March 20, 2015 at The Beatles LOVE Thaeter at the Mirage.
Q. What did you set out to achieve with this “Walk for Water”? What did you raise, and what did you feel it accomplished? How does all that marry into what you’re doing with One Drop in Las Vegas?
It was an amazing, beautiful day where 600 participants and students joined us. The idea is to really have a community-based event that’s not so much focused on raising funds but on generating awareness and mobilizing the community around the issue of water. It’s also the opportunity that we have to launch our efforts to promote “One Night for One Drop 2015.” So in that sense, it was a great success, and the difference also this year was the route that took us from the Smith Center to Springs Preserve, where we have a partnership to build a huge education program.
Q. Catherine, if it’s too far afield, then we won’t explore it, but is the knowledge of good, clean water worldwide one of the things that is going to come to the forefront now because of the Ebola crisis?
I think certainly it’s an interesting thing because that’s part of what we do, using the arts and entertainment to educate people. I know they’re having some challenges convincing populations and reaching populations to educate them about the danger of Ebola and how it’s being transmitted. Which also is what we do about cholera and all water-related disease. What we do in our platforms and our way of doing business is very effective in cases just like that. When we had our project in Haiti and we saw a rise in Cholera levels, we inserted a portion dedicated to that specifically in the plan that we delivered in the communities where we worked. It provoked a dramatic shift in lowering the numbers. So we know that through theater and art, you’re able to communicate and educate.
Q. Other than the fact that Cirque is so dominant as an entertainment conglomerate in Las Vegas, what’s the importance for Las Vegas to One Drop?
You’re right, our first connection is definitely our presence with Cirque du Soleil, our largest and most important partner, but it goes beyond that. Your mayor and the community have embraced One Drop like probably no other community in the world. The fact that we are telling a very powerful message about water, water stewardship and conservation right in the middle of the desert, that is in itself a very powerful message. The city of Las Vegas also has a very unique and powerful story to tell the world. It’s the city that grew by 400,000 people and yet your water consumption levels have gone down by about 30 percent. I think the rest of the world should know this, and I think Las Vegas can definitely lead the way.
Q. So that naturally leads to the biggest effort in fundraising and awareness with the annual “One Drop” show. It started off being a one-time special, and now in March it will go into its third year.
The show that’s now presented every year is a unique show; it’s a brand new show around the theme of water. Every year, there’s a different, or at least a new creative concept behind it tackling or approaching a different subject relating to water and water-related subjects. Each single “One Night for One Drop” is performed only once ever. So it’s a whole new show built from the ground up: New music, new costumes, new location, new acts. This is not a collage of other Cirque du Soleil shows. This is a completely unique, one-night, one-time-only Cirque du Soleil performance.
Q. So the first year we were in the “O” theater at Bellagio, and we saw performers in the water and actually using water. Last March, we switched to Mandalay Bay for more of a desertification production. So this year, can you give me a little sneak peek as to how you keep the same but different message going?
We used projections a lot more last year with the desertification — the increasing desertification of the world that we live in. We’re almost ready to unveil the creative genius of Mukhtar as he is the best at taking people on a very unique journey. Robin, you have the scoop in that the subtitle for this one, because it’s always “One Night for One Drop,” will be “Through the Eyes of One, We Explore the Lives Of Many.”
Mukhtar is going to take us on a journey through the eye of one telling the story of many. One thing that really struck me when I saw the presentation is that the first year, there was this beautiful performance choreography. Then last year, he took that a little farther and he used the same performers and had those ladies also play a role in the show. My understanding is that this year, he’s going to actually get even closer and really follow the lives of these six women — the journey that they have had and the different elements that are important in their lives.
{ SOURCE: Las Vegas Sun }
