Attorney Najila Brent, (seated) places a winning bid of $800.00 during a live auction for a drive along with SMPD K9 officer Roberto Villegas and his partner Nero, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois at the  American Red Cross of Santa Monica's "Red Tie Affair" at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel  on Saturday, March 24, 2007.

Niancho Sanneh, from the Niancho Eniyaley (Warrior, open your eyes) group, an african dance and drum band,  beats his djembe drum during the 2007 World Water Day - Walk for Water in Venice beach on Saturday, March 24, 2007.

About a couple hundred people walked from the Santa Monica Pier, south along the boardwalk to Venice during the 2007 World Water Day Walk on Saturday, March 23, 2007.  In many communities around the world, women and children must walk up to 6 miles a day to retrieve clean water for their families. The Walk for Water on World Water Day is a symbolic act of solidarity and an effort to educate the public about the World Water Crisis. The world water crisis is one of the largest public health issues of our time.  Worldwide, nearly 1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water [1]. The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day [2]. In fact, out of the 2.2 million unsafe drinking water deaths in 2004, 90% were children under the age of five [3]. Water is essential to the treatment of diseases, something especially critical for children.