Green Grens is currently working toward raising awareness on the harmful effects the people of Flint, Michigan, are experiencing after their drinking water supply changed in 2014.

This change to Flint River water did not include the necessary additive of a chemical that prevents the corrosion of lead pipes, so for well over a year now, residents of Flint have been drinking water with high lead levels.

The incidence of elevated blood lead levels among Flint children under age 5 nearly doubled from 2.1 percent to 4 percent, according to research led by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha at the Hurley Medical Center.

Lead destroys nerve cells, and the brain damage caused by lead poisoning is irreversible.

A Flint pediatrician who conducted widespread blood testing in Flint children for lead levels helped bring this tragedy to public attention, and she has been put in charge of overseeing the programs the children will need for years such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language services, regular blood testing and nutritional supplementation.

Green Grens plans on raising money during lunch periods to donate to the people of Flint, Michigan.

“Ms. [Eleanor] Pattie brought this to the attention of her science classes and they raised almost $80. That’s going to be added to what Green Grens raises. I thought that was extraordinary what she and her students did,” EGHS Counselor Steve Gordon said.

Gordon hopes that Green Grens will be able to get everyone to participate to support those people whose lives were forever altered.

“The quality of their lives will be very much worse as a result of the fact that they did something we all take for granted multiple times a day which is just to drink water. The fact that it is only happening a few hundred miles away in an American city like this is not a third world nation.This is the United States. This should not be happening,” Gordon said.