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New club at MSU aims to support Flint

January 18, 2017
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A new club is coming to MSU and its mission is to help with Flint Water Crisis relief.

Advertising management senior Gabe Woodworth and journalism senior Kaitlin Petrillo created the FRESHWATERFLINT project. This club’s mission is to help out the Flint community in any way possible.

The motivation behind the creation of FRESHWATERFLINT stemmed from the everyday tasks Woodworth compared and contrasted with the people of Flint.

“We have so many amenities here that we take for granted, fresh water, fresh food," Woodworth said. "I can literally run my shower all day at Hannah Lofts and everything will be fine, but in Flint you can’t even take a five-minute shower and that’s just not fair to me."

According a study by Virginia Tech University, the Flint River water was found to be 19 times more corrosive than water from Detroit.ch

Though the club is just starting, the members said they already have a clear goal in mind.

“Right now, we're just trying to better understand what our efforts and money and donations can go to and what will make the biggest impact,” Petrillo said.

Besides money, Petrillo and Woodworth believe there are other ways people can help Flint.

“Awareness is the biggest thing," Woodworth said. "It’s going to be a temporary fix because we can’t go in and fix their pipes, but if we can at least make a difference in a small portion of Flint by helping them out with food and water and let them know people care."

The club believes awareness can be spread easily, especially on a large-scale campus like MSU.

We have so many people on campus that it’s a perfect opportunity to raise money,” Woodworth said. "Even if everyone donates a small amount that will add up to something bigger."

Petrillo and Woodworth have also set up a GoFundMe page that is dedicated to raising money for Flint. Their goal is to raise at least $2,000 by the end of the semester.

“Short term, we’re just raising money right now and chatting with people to see where things should go and what the money should go towards and what is the biggest impact this money we’re raising will have," Petrillo said. "We’re going to try wrap up the GoFundMe by the end of the semester at latest. In the meantime, we are going to host events."

The events will begin around campus buildings but then will spread all around the East Lansing area. Woodworth said they will have a variety of tables set up in each location to attract people to their cause.

"First thing is we're going to set up a table in Wells (Hall)," he said. "We're going to try and get a bunch of stuff together like t-shirts, pins, stickers, things like that ... We’re going to try to raise awareness that way because so many people walk through Wells every day. Were going to try to set up events at Hannah Lofts or one of the bars to bring people together. You can either get in by bringing a food donation or $5.”

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