Kanye West and
his father, Ray West, joined several St. Mary’s County, MD residents for
the opening ceremony for World Water Day held at the G.O.O.D. Water Store and
Internet Café last Friday (Mar. 30). The
store, owned by West’s father, served as the site where county commissioners
proclaimed March 23 as “St. Mary’s County Water Awareness Day.”The
Good Water Store and Café is associated with his G.O.O.D. (Getting Out
Our Dreams) conglomerate and opened in November 2006 as the first of its kind
in Maryland. The
store serves water that is in its purest form, certified in three grades of purity."Me
and my dad have been talking about this for years," Kanye told The Washington
Post. "Originally, we came up with the concept of the cafe, and it only
made sense to get involved with activities like these."State
Sen. Roy P. Dyson (D-St. Mary’s) made an appearance at the event and presented
Kanye’s father with a proclamation signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), designating
March 18 to 24 as Maryland Clean Water Week. Due
to the efforts of Ray West and fellow water advocates, Sen. Dyson presented a
resolution by the state Senate and pledged to introduce legislation to fund an
$11 million study on the state’s aquifers."Water
is a critical, critical issue," Sen. Dyson said. "We’re in an area where
there’s plenty of water around, but we can’t always drink it."World
Water Day started as an initiative posed by the United Nations initiative that
began in 1993. Now
in 2007, the Lexington Park area in Maryland is one of 27 cities in the United
States and Canada that were observing World Water Day to promote awareness of
global water-access issues.