Why is water so important to me?
Back in 2014, a decision was made to change my community water source. They didn't treat the water and we ended up with lead and other toxins in our drinking water. For two years they lied and said the water was ok to drink. (1) #GIvingTuesday

Almost overnight we found out we couldn't use the tap for anything, not even to take a bubble bath. My siblings and I had to learn to not turn on the faucet. If we were exposed to the water for to long we would rashes that looked like chemical burns (2) #GivingTuesday

I was still a kid, but I wanted to be able to help out my community in any way that I could. So we started going to marches and protest, helping to hand out water and supplies, and I used social media to help spread the work about what life was like in Flint (3) #GivingTuesday

Before going to Washington DC for the congressional hearings, before we left I wrote a letter to President Obama. Almost 2 months later he responded and came all the way to Flint to check things out for himself, that's when I knew adults would listen to me (4) #GivingTuesday

When the state stopped handing out bottled water many in my community panicked. I started a gofundme to help give out bottled water and in under a year I gave out over a million bottles of water. This was just one of my water drops. (5) #GivingTuesday

And while bottled water was ok, I knew that it was awful for the environment, especially when so many were throwing their bottles in the trash and not recycling them. So I teamed up with a friend at @Hydroviv_h2o and got my own water filter. (6) #givingtuesday

For every dollar donated I can provide the equivalent of 160 bottles of water. Filters give people dealing with toxic water immediate access to clean water. (7) #GivingTuesday

And it's not just Flint dealing with "bad" water. It's a national issue facing hundreds of cities here in the US. That's why I ship my filters all over the country to those who can't wait for the government to fix it. (8) #AmericaHasAWaterCrisis #GivingTuesday

This #givingtuesday help me raise money to be able to give some of the most vulnerable communities in the country access to clean water. Give the gift of clean water this holiday season (9) #givingtuesday http://gofundme.com/TeamMariWater