Alyssa Drake
Staff Writer
The Jackson State University Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion in conjunction with Tougaloo College collected water to be sent to aid the citizens in Flint, Mich. currently dealing with a water contamination crisis.
Those wishing to help the Flint residents were asked to bring water donations to the second floor of the Student Center from Feb. 1- 5. By the end of the donation period, over a 100 cases of water had been donated from students, and organizations, some of which chose to go unrecognized.
Kendall Bunch, a junior Legislative Special Interest Senator for the JSU Student Government Association said, “I am glad that Jackson State decided to take part in (helping with) this crisis. I think it will be appreciated and well needed. I believe whether we sent one case or one hundred cases, the people of Flint will be happy just to know that people care, HBCUs care.”
Other students involved in the donation were pleased that JSU is participating in such a worthy cause.
“I was so excited when I was informed that JSU was going to take the initiative to help Flint, Mich. with water donations. To know that I, along with many others, were able to help even a few is a blessing. Our contributions will not be in vain,” said Shelbi Ware, Sophomore Class Vice President.
If you did not donate during the first collection process, there is still time to help.
JSU and Tougaloo collected more than 4000 cases of water and more than 500 gallons of water.
According to Kendal Givens Little, Director of Communications in the Office of Institutional Advancement, while the group is no longer accepting water donations, they are accepting monetary funds to pay for transportation to deliver the water to Flint.
If you are interested in making a donation, please contact Xavier Amos at Tougaloo at 601-977-4512 or Givens-Little at 601-977-7870.
“On behalf of the Division of Academic and Student Affairs we would like to thank everyone who donated water. We would like to send a special thank you to the wonderful people in Contractual Services and Pepsi for stepping up and helping out. We hope that the people of Flint, Mich. find some relief from the water that has been donated,” said Arron Richardson, Interim Director of the JSU Veterans Center.
According to published CNN reports, the water crisis in Flint began when the City of Flint chose to use the Flint River as their water source instead of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in April 2014. Since switching to the Flint River, citizens have complained about the horrid taste and smell of the water, and have suffered from extreme public health dangers due to lead contamination.
Between 6,000 and 12,000 children in Flint have been exposed to this lead contaminated water. Exposure to high levels of lead can cause extreme future health complications and is also believed to be the cause of Legionnaires’ disease, a respiratory illness caused by exposure to Legionella bacteria.
Gov. Rick Snyder declared that the City of Flint was in a state of emergency on Jan. 5, 2016. Two weeks later, President Obama declared it to be a federal state of emergency and authorized additional help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Tougaloo College thanks the students at JSU for all they did to help. There donations far exceeded our expectations and we thank you,” said Givens-Little.
