Most of the world is aware of what happened in Flint with the Flint Water Crisis but have no idea that there are millions of people in the United States who are dealing with a water crisis as well.

My name is Mari, I?m a 12 year old from Flint, Michigan. You may know me as Little Miss Flint. I have been fighting to ensure my community has access to clean safe water since I was 8 years old. 

Ever since April 2014 my community has been faced with a lead crisis that we are still recovering from. After the state ended the free bottled water for residents I decided to step up and make sure my community did not go with out. I was able to raise close to $300k and give out over a million bottles of water to my community.

What?s even worse is that Flint is not the only community dealing with a water crisis. Across the country there are cities and communities being faced with their own water crisis, some have water even more toxic then Flint. 

As our countries infrastructure continues to age we will begin to see more and more of these types of crisis if we don't begin to address them immediately.

This is why I want to bring clean water not to just my community but to other communities across the country that are facing their own water crisis.

I?m partnering with a socially-responsible water filtration company to bring state of the art water filters to communities nationwide that are impacted by poor water quality. The water filtration approach has three main advantages over bottled water:

1. Cost of Impact: Every dollar donated to this campaign will provide over 160 bottles worth of safe drinking water. This has 15x the impact of donating to bottled water campaigns. 

2. Time: In Flint, I see that people are spending hours in line to receive donations bottled water. By giving people the ability to have safe water, on demand in their home, they won?t have to take time off from work or spend their weekends lined up to get bottled water. 

3. Environmental Impact: While bottled water can be a good solution for immediate fix to a crisis, it is not a sustainable fix when the world is drowning in plastic pollution. 

Flint Water Crisis Background 

The Flint Water Crisis began in 2014 when the drinking water source for the city of Flint, Michigan was changed from pre-treated water from Detroit to the Flint River and treated in the Flint Water Treatment Plant. The treatment plant was not equipped with the proper equipment to treat the water (which would have cost around $100 a day), and the river water damaged the pipes allowing lead and bacteria to get into the water. For month?s local officials and the media claimed the water was fine and that the residents were overreacting, even as scientist began to uncover just how bad the water crisis was. Many homes had water comparable to toxic waste.

?Little Miss Flint? Background 

Through my previous water donation campaigns, I was able to donate over ONE MILLION bottles of water to families impacted by the Flint Lead Crisis. My community needed water they could trust and bottled water was the only resource for drinking water that many in my community trusted. For my new donation campaign, my team has partnered with a socially-responsible water filtration company, which will allow us to maximize the impact of donated funds and eliminate the single use plastic waste that is associated with bottled water.

Socially-Responsible Corporate Partner Background 

Hydroviv was Founded by a Ph.D. Chemist as a charitable response to the Flint Lead Crisis in 2015. Hydroviv was called out by The Chicago Tribune and BBC as the first water filter ?company? to develop and donate high-capacity lead removal filters to families & child-centric organizations in Flint. Four years later, Hydroviv now designs & builds custom water filters for people around the US, and makes these products available to the public at a fraction of the cost of comparable systems. Hydroviv recently appeared on ABC?s Shark Tank where Mark Cuban praised Hydroviv?s charitable roots as ?doing well by doing good.? For this campaign, Hydroviv has agreed to provide their premium filters at their break-even cost.

Proceeds benefit Filters for