BY COLIN MACDOUGALL
Contributor
Washtenaw Community College joined the county-wide Washtenaw Water Drive Coalition to assist in providing the citizens of Flint, Michigan bottled water in their time of need. WWDC’s goal was to send 100,000 bottles of water to residents of Flint.
Wednesday, Jan. 27 through the 28, students and volunteers worked in Parking Lot 2 collecting water and loading it into the WCC automotive technology trailers. The WCC Automotive Technology Department delivered the water to Flint.
WCC’s Political Science club joined in the efforts, volunteering their time to the cause. The treasurer of the PSC Davon Shackleford, a 22-year-old math and science major from Ann Arbor said, “E Pluribus Unum, (meaning) out of many, one. We represent many backgrounds, interests, creeds, and religions. However when it really matters, we stand by each other. That is the American experience that binds us all together, and this is America.”
Joe Chapman, the vice president of the PSC, and 20-year-old sociology major from Ypsilanti said he was impressed at the amount of water collected – coming in at over double the original estimate of 600 cases – as well as the willingness of community members to volunteer.
Pete Leshkevich, director of Student Activities noted, “I’m just really proud of our students and community to provide support for Flint in their time of need. We are really impressed by the generosity of the donors and we had to get a second trailer to transport to Flint.”
Chapman added, “Kudos to Pete for just being so committed to it. He was there at 7 a.m. on Thursday and was there everyday and handled every situation that came up. We had a lot of last minute fixes and add-ins, and too much water. He got a whole new semi-trailer, within a day. Pete was the biggest person to thank.”