Imagine waking up every day and unknowingly taking a shower in dirty water; imagine drinking the same dirty water and cooking with it. The citizens of Flint, Michigan were living that reality everyday, with their water being poisoned by lead. Up until this year, the citizens of Flint were unknowingly drinking water that had lead and iron in it, damaging their brains forever. The  government finally stepped in and declared the city in a state of emergency.  Residents are unable to drink, bathe, cook, or clean with the water coming out of their taps due to these toxins.  These people have no choice but to purchase bottled water for every use. Buying a case of water is inexpensive when it only needs to be done once a week, but these people need at least a case per day. According to “Drop in the Bucket” , the average person uses approximately 100-175 gallons of water each day, and the average DASANI bottle of water is about 16.6 fluid ounces, which is about 1/28 of a gallon, so you can imagine how many cases are needed to sustain each resident.

With the crisis hitting so close to home, the varsity girls basketball team felt compelled to help their neighbors. To kickstart the fundraiser, the girls and boys teams collected cases of water in exchange for admission to their games. The team didn’t stop there.  On Saturday, Jan. 23, the team stood outside Busch’s Fresh Food Market with signs reading, “Save Flint!” or “Donate a case of water for Flint!” while collecting donations of both money and water. Cash contributions added up to $800, which was used to buy even more water from the store. Overall, more than 400 cases of water were donated to Flint through the team.

“I decided to do this because I think when people are in need of help, one community should rally around the other to help,” said varsity girl’s coach Shay Lewis.

The team knew that simply collecting water wasn’t enough. Lewis and the team drove up to Flint to hand-deliver the water to the Catholic Charities North End Soup Kitchen where it would be distributed.

Senior Taylor Smith and her family brought a huge trailer filled with cases of water along with senior Nykka Brigoli and junior Nicole Shaw who both packed their cars full to make the trip up to Flint.   

“It felt good to help people who are less fortunate than us yet live so close,” said junior Maggie Rogers.