Indianapolis woman drives 300 cases of water to Flint for Christmas

Dec 25, 2016

A young woman from Indianapolis took it upon herself to bring 300 cases of water to Flint, Michigan, for the holidays.

23-year-old Chelsea Johnson says the idea to donate clean water came from reading the news online.

“About two days before Thanksgiving I was on Facebook and I saw that Flint still doesn’t have clean water so it was my initial idea just to drive up there myself and I was like how can I capitalize on this? How can I make this a bigger deal?” Chelsea Johnson, founder of Forward for Flint, said.

As a mother of a 5-year-old, Johnson said the issue touched her personally.

“I’m a mom. I have a young 5-year-old, so I can’t imagine trying to prepare for Christmas dinner or live daily without the water you need,” Johnson told WTHR.

She turned to social media in order to ask for donations, and it caught on like wildfire.

“We went from maybe an 18 seat van to maybe two vans. Now we need a U-Haul,” said Juanette Hadnott, another one of the organizers.

Forward for Flint made their last push for the donation on Friday. They parked their truck just outside a charity basketball game and asked anyone coming to the game to bring a case of water to donate.

The group and those who have donated to it say it feels good to help others out during the holiday season. They drove the water to Flint themselves on Saturday so that people would have clean water for Christmas.

Members of the Flint Muslim Food Pantry thanked the group personally online.

“Today at the Flint Muslim Food Pantry we were so blessed to have a group of amazing individuals come all the way from Indianapolis, Indiana to deliver water to the residents of Flint,” wrote Isra Daraiseh on Facebook. “You are angels and we were all grateful for meeting you today.”