Bucket brigade Whenever I talk with Dick Chapin I wonder what I'm going to be remembered for. After I tell this story, you may feel likewise. You probably know Dick as the founder and chairman of Chapin Watermatics of Watertown, N.Y., the company that introduced drip irrigation in the United States and supplies much of the trickle lines now common in the nursery and greenhouse industry. Dick built a substantial business and has about 125 employees and a worldwide reputation. But that's not what I want to tell you about. The story begins in 1974. Dick was invited by Catholic Relief to Senegal, where like many other Third World countries, drought is common and hunger relief desperately needed. He was shocked by what he saw. He said he met people who had not eaten for days. Mothers gathered weeds to make soup. He found it difficult to eat a meal surrounded by starving people. Water was scarce, and crops unirrigated. Senegal needed an inexpensive irrigation system for remote areas without running water, wells or pumps. Dick's project Returning home, he developed a "Bucket Kit" that uses just 10 gallons of water daily, providing ample moisture to produce enough vegetables for a small family. Dick's Bucket Kit is simple in design. It consists of fittings and 100 feet of irrigation hose or drip tape attached to an elevated 5-gallon bucket on a clothesline-type apparatus. His engineers determined the height at which it would irrigate a small garden by gravity feed. The next year, 1975, Dick began manufacturing Bucket Kits for people in dry lands where irrigation was primitive or nonexistent. Selling the kits for a nominal fee, he solicited the financial support of 300 organizations worldwide for support. He hired two people to travel worldwide training nationals how to use the kits. These trainees then grow their own vegetables and, in return, show their neighbors how to grow vegetables. His Chapin Living Waters Foundation now has provided Bucket Kits to thousands of people in 120 countries. "But we need to get them to millions," Dick told me. Despite the worldwide financial support, there still is not enough money coming in to provide Bucket Kits to all who need them. Each kit costs about $12.50 to make, which is a large sum of money for starving people and poor governments. Drought, he said, "means that for six months out of the year, some of these people won't have any vegetables." A couple of times a year, Dick travels. When I talked with him, he had recently returned from Kenya. "I'm 82, and I don't know how long the Lord will keep me going," he said. "But I'm healthy and I'll keep on as long as the Lord lets me." Let's hope for a long time, Dick. If you want to learn more about the Bucket Kits project, you can call Dick at (315) 788-0891. © 2000 Branch-Smith Publishing