Flint native Andre Dirrell committed to helping solve city water crisis

Flint native Andre Dirrell committed to helping solve city water crisis, Andre Dirrell no best lives in Flint, Mich., breadth he was built-in and raised, but the ancient Olympic brownish advocate and above cool middleweight apple best still has abounding ties to his city.

And the baptize crisis that has accustomed abounding accouchement irreversible advance contagion as a aftereffect of bubbler attenuated city-limits water, hit abutting to home. Dirrell still has abounding ancestors associates who reside in Flint and accept been impacted by the crisis.

It's apprenticed Dirrell to action. An aunt has already aloft $50,000 and formed to try to acquisition a solution. Now, he's lending his time, money and access to the effort. Not alone has Dirrell already donated time and money, he's set up a Go Fund Me page to accession money to buy cooler baptize for those in the city-limits who charge it.

"God has adored me and I accept a job I adulation and the adeptness to accomplish a lot of money accomplishing it," Dirrell told Yahoo Sports. "I'm extensive out to added athletes in the battle apple just like me who accept the adeptness to accomplish a difference. We've been blessed, and we can accomplish a lot of money in one fight. This is a tragedy that is accident afore our actual eyes and it's something we can do something to help."Flint is the additional atomic city-limits in the country, according to a U.S. Census Bureau address from endure year, arch alone Youngstown, Ohio. More than 40 percent of the city's citizenry lived in abjection in 2014, the address said.

That's a big reason, Dirrell believes, for the crisis. Flint city-limits admiral switched the baptize accumulation from Detroit's to the Flint River in 2014 in adjustment to save money. Not continued after, a General Motors bulb in Flint chock-full application the city's baptize supplying, accusatory that it breakable parts.

Dirrell said that Michigan politicians, including Gov. Rick Snyder, accept not acted apace abundant because it is such a low-income area.

"This is basically gentrification," Dirrell said. "They're bound closing down schools. My top school, average academy and elementary academy are gone. Big-time supermarkets are accepting bankrupt down. They're shutting the city-limits down to clean it, and I accept they wish to run the poor humans out."

Many of those poor humans are ancestors and accompany with Dirrell, and they accept boilerplate to go and charge advice badly.

So Dirrell said he's traveling to allege out and do what he can to accomplish a difference.

"These kids accepting that advance contagion from bubbler the water, it's something that is adverse and that is traveling to accept a abiding appulse on abounding lives," he said. "We're traveling to do what we can do to try to advice the humans and to acquisition a band-aid to this problem.

"You're a kid and you're out arena and you appear in and you get a alcohol of baptize after even cerebration about it. And again kids accomplishing what they do, arena and accepting fun and accepting a alcohol if they're thirsty, it turns out they're putting themselves at risk. That's wrong. That's just not right. We accept to do something."

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