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Local business donates water to Flint, Michigan

Posted at 11:38 PM, Jan 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-20 06:18:08-05

A local business is helping you help the people of Flint, Michigan.

“Posh Studio” has already collected dozens of cases of bottled water; they’ll be accepting more donations Wednesday.

“I feel like if we don't help ourselves, who's going to help us?" said owner Jacklyn Berry.

On Friday, Berry and some friends will gather up all the water they collect, and drive it 600 miles to Flint, they say, in a truck donated by the Shoe City chain.  Then they'll help distribute the water to residents who need it.

“It makes me feel good to see that all of us could come together and do something positive in our city,” Berry said.

This past weekend President Obama signed an emergency declaration for the city of Flint.

Its water became contaminated well over a year ago, when Flint switched from Detroit's water system to a system that drew water from a local river, to save money.

But the water in the new system was not treated properly, and so lead leached into it from the old pipes.

That exposed Flint's 100,000 residents to toxic levels, and it took officials nearly five months to warn residents.

Elevated levels of lead can cause serious neurological problems, especially in children.

If you would like to donate bottled water, you can drop it off Wednesday at Posh Studio, in the 800 block of Howard Street, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“We get a lot of backlash about how bad Baltimore is or how we kill each other but we've got some good things going on in our city as well,” Berry said.

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