July 7, 2025
When “I Run For Water” founder Mike Stein completed a ride from his home near Reed’s Run to the State Pier in Arnolds Park, he knew he could easily rehydrate. Access to clean water isn’t a reality for about 1 in 10 people around the world, according to World Vision, a nonprofit that builds pipelines to bring water to Hondurans. He talked about his project along the promenade, which will serve as the finish line for the upcoming University of Okoboji Homecoming races. (Photo by Russ Mitchell)
He’ll also be thinking about the young girls who have to cover 3-4 miles each day on the other side of the world.
Stein is the founder of “I Run For Water,” an alternate name and appropriate tagline to sum up his work through the Prairie Fire Foundation. The concept is simple enough: Stein signs up for distance running events. He gets people to pledge amounts based on the miles he covers.
The money goes to the Sister Water Project, an effort by the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters in eastern Iowa. In 2026, their mission will mark 20 years of bringing safe water to villagers in Tanzania and Honduras. In the African county, funds buy new wells to bring clean water closer to the villages. In Central America, donations pay for pipelines to transport water from the mountains.
In the early days of the mission, one of the sisters met a Tanzanian woman who was digging holes in a river bed during drought season — just to get a bucket or two of dirty water.
“The lady said, ‘every morning, I wake up and I pray that I can have a cup of water.’ That’s the context of the situation in Tanzania and elsewhere,” Stein said. “Young girls walking maybe two miles, one way to get water and back. Young girls often, or women, are tasked with getting the water.”
For those young girls, the trek usually means they miss out on an education while the boys get to go to school.
“Sometimes those water paths are — I want to say — observed through less than scrupulous people,” the pharmacist from Iowa City said. “So there’s sexual exploitation, perhaps human trafficking in some places. Water is really more than life there too. It’s opportunity. It’s very difficult.”
“It’s easy to come up here and enjoy the water,” he added.
The half-marathon entrant knows Saturday’s route well. The Steins own a house by Reed’s Run in the southeast part of Big Spirit Lake. His uses his Lakes home and the jogging paths often.
But he wasn’t always so close by.
Stein grew up in the Fort Dodge area and went to school in Gilmore City. His family would occasionally come up to Okoboji — the trips weren’t frequent, but they were always a highlight.
During the school year, he’d run for the track team and try to stay in shape for football season.
FINDING A PURPOSE ON THE PAVEMENT
Running slipped as a priority at some points in life for the father of four. The hobby always brought him back, though.
Stein finds a sense of peace on the pavement and considers the beat of his footsteps “quiet time for me.”
“That’s always enjoyable,” he said. “As I gear up for running a race and I add the miles — not always enjoyable. I used to run for my health, and now I run in spite of my health, perhaps — but I run for water. I run for others. For me, there’s more of a bigger meaning to my running today than there has been over the last 20 or 30 years.”
Stein finished his first marathon in 2004. His first philanthropic run benefitted both the Sisters Water Project and parish efforts at the San Lucas Mission in Guatemala.
“I probably started focusing on water a little bit in 2021 but refined that more in 2023 and decided that water was probably my mission,” he said. “It’s easy. Everybody needs water. It’s universal. It’s not political, it’s not left, it’s not right. When I run, I need water. When I bike, I need water. So there’s sort of a hidden meaning. But people worldwide need water every day who don’t have access to it.”
Facebook campaigns fueled Stein’s first donations to the Franciscan sisters in Dubuque. He used the year-long recovery from his neck injury to formally create I Run For Water.
He didn’t want to attach any dollar amounts to his upcoming run, however.
“The Okoboji half-marathon — I set for myself as a test to see: What can I get prepared for? What can I do if I feel pretty good after that? I’ll probably try to run something in September and raise some money myself,” he said.
THE MISSION WILL OUTLAST THE MILES
Marathons are timed in hours and minutes, but it’s years on the road that are taking a toll on the 58-year-old’s muscles and ligaments. Stein knows the motto “I run for water” will need to be “we run for water,” eventually.
“I’m trying to get others involved, to join what I do, knowing that my days are winding down,” he said. “If we’re going to do some good for water, it’s me getting other people involved.”
“Doing some good for water” also means boots on the ground for the Sister Water Project. Stein made a trip to Tanzania in January 2024. Auditing old wells is as important as digging new ones.
He said the trip revealed a beautiful culture with beautiful people.
“The two messages I heard a lot was: ‘We have nothing to repay you with. Only God can repay you. We thank you for this well and this gift of water.’ So they were extremely grateful,” Stein said.
“The second thing I noticed was almost every village we went into — that we brought water into — would say, ‘you know, this well will make such a difference for us, but the community down the road needs a well, too,’ or ‘the village over here needs a well,’ or ‘the school nearby needs a well,’” he continued. “So not only were they thankful for what they were receiving, they were looking after, I’ll say, fellow neighboring communities to hope that they get the same gift of water.”
STEIN WILL BIKE FOR WATER, TOO
Saturday’s University of Homecoming half-marathoner enjoys cycling almost as much as running, but he’s only taken part in RAGBRAI, the border-to-border touring bicycle ride across Iowa once and “it was 30-some years ago.”
Stein won’t go river to river, but he plans to ride part of Monday’s route from Milford to Estherville. He’s also going to set up a booth, hand out free water and raise awareness along with any donations. Each $5,000 he collects makes another well in Tanzania possible.
“They may use five or 10 gallons that they collect from a river, and that’s for the day,” he said. “I probably use more than 10 gallons in the shower. So, yeah, definitely, I think of water often. And when I’m in sort of pain, or I think I’m in pain, or I’m tired, sometimes that’s motivation for me to think ‘I don’t have it so bad. Really, I’m gonna be done here soon, and I’m gonna get a water soon.’ Other people live through that grind every single day.”