Meet Curt + Cathy

Leaving the corporate world, Curt and Cathy began a round-the-world cycling tour, and in doing so found a new calling. They decided that, while bicycling the globe was good fun, stopping and giving to those in need was even better. Initially, they volunteered for three months at a medical clinic for orphans in Northern Thailand. They ended up staying five years.

In 1999 while giving a slide show in Boulder, Colorado about their adventures, they met the founder of Asia Transpacific Foundation, Marilyn Downing Staff, and a partnership was formed. With the financial support of that Foundation, Curt and Cathy returned to Asia and began a vocational training center to teach orphaned and refugee youth vocational skills.

The Bradners were also supported by Bill Dorricott. His Ttocirrod Foundation began funding their Youth Development Projects and water filter projects. The Ttocirrod Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit, is now doing business as Thirst-Aid.

Thirst-Aid emphasizes the importance of education about water-related illnesses, acknowledging that educated people do not willingly drink contaminated water, much less give it to their children. Thirst-Aid then uses available resources to produce ceramic water filters, resulting in clean water for local populations.

This model has been very successful at providing sustainable safe water, as well as responding to emergency situations, such as providing critically needed clean water to victims of the 2005 tsunami that affected Southern Thailand and the 2008 cyclone in Myanmar.