KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- It's about doing what you can where you are. That’s what Dr. Addis Moore of the Northside Ministerial Alliance said he’s seeing from people during their bottled water drive. The organization and the City of Kalamazoo have teamed up to hold a drive for those impacted by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He said people are looking at the images of dirty water on TV and thinking to themselves ‘that could be me.’
“That's where I really thank God for the city because it's amazing, as we start moving, individuals are wanting to do something,” said Moore. “It’s on their mind."
Moore said the drive has collected over 500 cases so far. People are dropping them off at Mt. Zion Baptist Church's Otha Gilyard Fellowship Hall.
“The response has been phenomenal,” said Moore. “Even churches that are not a part of our Northside Ministerial Alliance, individuals are hearing about it, finding out about it, individuals on the college campus, fraternities, sororities.”
Once the city of Kalamazoo found out about what they were doing, they jumped on board.
“The city manager called me, Jim Ritsema, he called me and said ‘You’re doing this waiter drive and we’ve been thinking about doing something also. Why don’t we partner with you. So guess what we’ll do? We’ll take your water to Flint,’ “ said Moore.
NMA will continue to take donations throughout the weekend. On Tuesday, the city will drive it two hours east to churches in Flint where residents can pick up as many cases as they need.
“It seems as though everybody wants to do something to be a part of the solution, even though we know its a systemic problem that needs to be taken care of,” said Moore. “But in the meantime we actually can do something to alleviate the stress and strain on the residents there.”
