When students and faculty at Hillside School traveled to Needham businesses last year in search of donations for the UNICEF Tap Project, they continued a tradition of helping those less fortunate, a tradition that carries on this week.

On Thursday, March 17, members of Hillside will take part in the “Water Stroll,” an outing from 5 to 7 p.m. in which participants visit local businesses and ask if they can give them a UNICEF canister to display. The canister is to be placed in prominent places in the businesses during World Water Week (Mar. 20- 26) and patrons are asked to donate a dollar each.

Money raised by UNICEF is used to help provide clean drinking water to impoverished nations. This year’s main recipients of the donations will be the children of Togo, the Central African Republic and Vietnam.

In order to prepare for World Water Week and learn more about the message they would be spreading to others in town, Hillside students took part in regular exercises in George Goneconto’s second grade and Amy Cicala’s fourth grade classes, and toured a water plant. After amassing their knowledge of all things H2O, the students presented at various halftime shows in Needham.

“We watched a video that showed how kids in Africa carry five gallons of water on their heads to use and drink for the day,” fourth grader Henry Keegan told Patch last month. “To get an idea of what this is like we brought gallon water containers from home and each carried them on our heads for one lap around the field [at school] but that was nothing compared to what the African children have to go through.”

Businesses already participating in World Water Week 2011 include:

• Abbott’s Frozen Custard
• Acorns Bakery
• Bagels Best
• Café Fresh
• The Center Café
• Cowlicks Deli
• Fresco
• Fuji Steak House
• Jenson Cleaners
• Kosta’s Kitchen
• Marsala Art
• Needham House of Pizza
• Nicholas Pizzeria
• Not Your Average Joe’s
• Pomodoro
• Rice Barn
• Stone Hearth Pizza
• Sweet Corner
• Town House Pizza
• Tu y Yo
• Village Fish