Mari Copeny (2007) is an American young activist from Flint, state of Michigan, US. She is known as Little Miss Flint for all the things she has done for her city. In 2014 began a public health issue named The Flint water crisis, in which Flint’s water was so contaminated that it killed many people and made others very sick. Mari decided to do something about it, so she sent a letter to the sitting president, Barack Obama, inviting him to come and see the suffering of Flint himself. Her letter was published in the Los Angeles Times and she reached her aim: making the US president go to Flint and make this crisis visible.
After this achievement, she decided to continue fighting to clean Flint’s water, by campaigning and doing fundraisings. Mari has also done different things for Flint’s children, such as giving them 600 plus backpacks filled with school supplies to every school in Flint, Christmas gifts, Easter baskets, film screenings, etc.
Mari has also got a fund where every dollar provides a family in need with an equivalent of 160 bottles of water without actual plastic bottles. She has also encouraged Americans to go vote in the US elections. In 2017 she became. Youth Ambassador to Women’s March on Washington Youth and the National Climate March. In 2019 Mari received the Shorty Award in Activism. She currently still continues to help the kids in Flint. Mari has been featured in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, TIME, The Washington Post, etc.
Bibliography:
https://www.maricopeny.com/about
https://www.cfgf.org/Our-Work-Impact/Current-Initiatives/Flint-Kids-Fund