SEATTLE – Rachel Beckwith didn't want presents for her ninth birthday, she wanted donations instead. Rachel wanted to help children get clean drinking water. She raised $220 and planned to ask the same for her 10th birthday.
In July, a pile-up accident on I-90 near Seattle took Rachel's life.
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"The best memorial they figured, was to keep Rachel's water drive going. So they did. And then came the flood," says NBC's Lee Cowan.
Rachel's story spread through Facebook, Twitter and radio. Soon, the tally was going up thousands of dollars at a time from strangers around the country.
Today, the total is more than a million dollars, well beyond the few hundred dollars she intended to raise. Rachel's selfless goal has now raised enough money to help more than 50,000 people get clean drinking water for life.
You can contribute at http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign?campaign_id=16396