Ever heard of Little Miss Flint? It’s possible you may have heard of her from her  witty response to Tomi Lahren on Twitter. She was the youngest person listed in the Teen Vogue 21 under 21 Class of 2017 and the youngest national Women’s March youth ambassador. She’s also been featured on news sites, social media, and even Oprah’s magazine.  Little Miss Flint is the nickname of Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, the impressive young eleven year old who orchestrated the delivery of 135,000 water bottles to Flint, Michigan last year.

On May 27th of 2018, Mari Copeny organized the delivery of these bottles of water to Flint residents who lined up for more than two hours to stack up. In 93 degree heat, residents were grateful for Copeny’s organization. Copeny’s team also sent personally delivered water packs to the elderly, those with disabilities, and other residents who were unable to wait in the heat.

The problem that Mari Copeny is working to solve began when she was only six years old. In 2014, Flint’s water reserves were altered, leading to a devastating deterioration of the quality of its residents’ tap water. As a result of the higher traces of lead, twelve cases of Legionnaires’ disease arose. Even more broadly, scores of children suffered from brain damage because of the constant intake of the toxic water for years without warning of its many risks. The more Copeny learned about the water crisis, she realized that she wanted to take a more active role in finding the solution.

“It smelled funny, and it was brown,” Copeny noted. “It wasn’t something you’d want to drink…my baby sister’s [condition] was so bad she had to use special oil and be wrapped in plastic wrap at nighttime.” Copeny’s family began to limit showers to two minutes to avoid the rashes, hair loss, and long-term developmental problems that resulted from a possible exposure to lead in the water. When she was 8 years old, Copeny wrote a letter to President Obama, requesting to meet with her and a group of people coming to Washington regarding congressional hearings on the Flint water crisis. He later responded in a letter announcing he was coming to Flint to ensure that the town’s residents receive the help they deserve. This moment cemented Copeny’s nickname internationally as “Little Miss Flint” because of her precocious devotion to representing the children of Flint’s interests.

Copeny isn’t the only one raising awareness about this dire situation. Ever since the discovery of dangerous levels of lead in Flint’s water, residents have been calling on the governor to update the city’s water supply, pipes, and reservoir. This would include the overhaul of pipes which carry water to homes, as they were also badly corroded by the very chemicals which were intended to sterilize the toxic water.

Karen Weaver, Flint’s mayor has spoken out about these troubling circumstances, writing in a statement, “We did not cause the man-made water disaster…Therefore adequate resources should continue being provided until the problem is fixed and all the lead and galvanized pipes have been replaced”. While Weaver’s acknowledgement that Flint is currently undergoing a disaster is encouraging, it does little to solve the  daily problem of obtaining safe drinking water which poses an immediate concern to residents. As for now, many have relied on bottled water for drinking, cooking and cleaning. This is why Copeny’s work is so important.

In April of 2018, Michigan governor Rick Snyder decided to end a state-funded free bottled water program. Copeny started a crowdfunding page to raise money for water bottles and has so far generated 65,000 dollars. The money was processed by the nonprofit Pack Your Back, and any funds not used for Flint’s water is set aside for summer programming for children in Michigan. She’s committed in many ways to ensuring the safety of the children she represents.

When asked what she likes about helping people and why she thinks it’s important, Copeny responded, “I love helping people, especially kids. I grew up around giving back to others, it’s always been a part of my life. If I don’t help others someone else may not think that they need to help others. When people see me, a ten-year-old helping others, they sometimes want to be able to help others too.” Copeny shows no signs of slowing down either. She’s traveled around the country to speak about Flint’s crisis, raised thousands of dollars for academic and extracurricular support for Flint Kids, thrown several movie screenings, given away over 600 bicycles, held events for Christmas, given away over 15,000 backpacks with school supplies and more.  Copeny makes her presidential aspirations no secret, and there’s no reason why she should. Her devotion to advocating on the behalf of human rights in underrepresented communities would prove a healthy and fresh force in American government systems.