Project Flint Responds to Self-Promotion, Misused Donation Claims [VIDEO]
Project Flint has been taking some heat from locals, who claim the organization is piggybacking on the exposure of the water crisis and using donated funds for personal gain.
There's an old saying us jaded folk like to use that goes like this -- "no good deed goes unpunished." Sure, it's a twisted reflection of a more optimistic and well-known idiom, but a great profundity is present in both. So which expression applies to this story? The answer depends on what you think of Project Flint.
Project Flint started in February of 2016 as, "One individual set out on a divine mission. Unsure exactly why it was so pressed upon her heart. A girl from Milwaukee WI, with MASSIVE dreams, and a passion to back it. Since February 4th, 2016 the vision has become a reality. Now, strongly united with other; Organizations, documentarians, activists, and individuals driven by love and awareness the movement she so strongly believed in is moving. COMMITTED to seeking justice, showing love, and bringing awareness. 'We the people.'"
Now, if you ask me, and only if you ask me, this project sounds more like it's about the founder than the city for which it's named. Then again, what do I know? I'm just now hearing about this project for the first time. That's just my first impressions from reading Project Flint's bio, but my hot takes are not the focus here -- the accusations being lobbed at Project Flint are. So let's dive into them.
Some locals have been putting Project Flint on blast, saying that founder Karina Petrie is doing everything from falsely collecting money in the name of Flint to using the city's struggle for shameless self-promotion. Locals have a handful of other issues with the project, a few of which you can see below.
Karina recently spoke out against these accusations in a very long-winded, meandering video. The gist of which being that the project does not collect money, and hasn't done so in over a year, but also that the Project has become about more than just Flint. I'd rather you try to follow her explanation than paraphrase too much, because, hey -- I'm not making excuses for anybody.
If you want to know what exactly the project is, you can head to their YouTube channel or Facebook page and try to figure that out for yourself. Sure, there are a lot of videos like the one above, many of which feature Karina being astonished by Flint water crisis facts locals have known since the jump. I mean, I laughed out loud at how ridiculously "woke" some of them were. Watching people play Google Earth X-Files always gets me, but I've got a unique sense of humor.
There are also more positive videos like the one below actually, I can't include that video because embedding has been disabled, likely to optimize views on her YouTube channel. That's an interesting approach for an organization whose goal is to raise awareness, but I digress.
Is her mission authentic or opportunistic? That's for you to decide.