How Sawyer Is Saving Millions of Lives with Clean Water Solutions

In this episode of The cityCURRENT Show, host Andrew Bartolotta sits down with Kurt Avery, the visionary founder of Sawyer, to explore the extraordinary journey of a company that’s turning innovation into global transformation.

What started with a snakebite extractor evolved into life-saving water filtration technology now used by over 140 charities across more than 90 countries, providing clean water to millions of people. From disaster relief in the U.S. to Uganda, Kurt shares how Sawyer is solving one of the world’s biggest problems—for just 10 cents per person for 10 years of clean water.

Click to watch the interview with Andrew Bartolotta and Kurt Avery.

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May 27, 2025

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Andrew Bartolotta

Host

Andrew Bartolotta is a digital media professional who has connected passion with purpose through technology for over a decade. As Director of Digital Media for cityCURRENT, he develops and manages various events and media efforts to advance the corporate activation landscape and coordinate digital media resources to help cityCURRENT Partners and the community utilize digital media for their CSR initiatives.

Equipped with both design and marketing skills, Andrew uses his expansive network to empower community problem solvers to ignite change through digital media. During his college years, he volunteered over 1,000 hours of pro-bono skills based work to local small businesses and nonprofits to expand their visual communications. In 2020, he was the recipient of the Mississippi Governor’s Initiative for Volunteer Excellence (GIVE) Award for Outstanding Service in the Promotion of Volunteering and Community.


Andrew has used that experience to bolster impact through various organizations including Leadership Memphis, Southaven Chamber of Commerce, The Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, American Cancer Society and his role as previous Board Chair for Let's Innovate Through Education and Volunteer Mid-South, marketing chair for Hernando-DeSoto Habitat for Humanity, and more.

In 2014, Andrew was invited to the White House twice as a digital media innovator by the Office of Digital Strategy to learn from their team and collaborate with the office on expanding existing content to new digital platforms.

Since then, he has spoken at various organizations and conferences, including the Points of Light National Conference on Volunteering and Service to their internal Volunteer Agencies; helping to strengthen the awareness of social good by way of social media. He regularly partners with organizations to host workshops on digital media and has been able to impact over 285 nonprofit organizations; helping them effectively share their mission and impact.

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Medya Mansyone

When I’m going to be walking in tall grass and weeds, I wear my snake boots which I’ve sprayed with Sawyer’s permethrin. Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/article308242365.html#storylink=cpy

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Water purification technology has reached new heights with the Sawyer Squeeze System, delivering 0.1-micron absolute filtration that removes 99.9% of harmful bacteria, protozoa, and cysts.

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