A group of Old Mill High School art students has raised $5,600 for a well to be built in Sierra Leone, allowing a community to have safe, clean water.

Members of the high school's National Art Honors Society chapter raised the money through an online art auction. The students donated the money to The Water Project, which has been installing wells for clean water in Africa.

“Nobody said, ‘Let's buy art supplies,' ” Old Mill art teacher Jennifer Petrin Johannes said. “They said, ‘What can we do that is bigger?' ”

In 15 years, she said, the organization had never raised that much for a single project. Every year the club, which has branches at high schools all over the country, focuses on an art-related service project.

During the 2015 school year, the students decided to focus on water. Johannes said the students were “appalled” when they learned children die every day for lack of clean water.

At least 1.8 billion people globally use a drinking-water source contaminated with feces, according to the World Health Organization.

To raise money, the students created two-dimensional artwork inspired by water. About 90 pieces were juried and selected to be a part of the auction, Johannes said.

The work was sold on the website Bidding Owl. Each piece started at $10. Some sold for as much as $200. The students raised about $4,000 from the website. The rest of the money came from fundraisers during the school year.

Having artwork sold was an accomplishment for the high school artists, said Amara Kamal, an Old Mill senior who is the school's National Art Honors Society president.

Kamal said she and her peers researched several organizations before donating the money. They chose The Water Project because the nonprofit would put the donation directly toward building the well. It has brought clean water to more 500 people.