Team Mari Back 2 School 2023

Hi everyone!!

I'm Mari, I'm a 16-year-old kid from Flint, MI. I am known globally as "Little Miss Flint". When it comes to all things related to kids in Flint, and clean water globally I'm your girl.

For the past 8 years, I have been doing my annual back-to-school drive and backpack giveaway. In my very first year, my goal was 50 backpacks and I was able to 100. In my second year, we did 1,000 backpacks. One year we did a backpack for every single child in the city of Flint. To date, we have been able to distribute 19,000 fully stuffed backpacks.

The average cost of the school supply list from teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade is over 100 dollars, most low-income families can not afford these supplies and it puts a strain on the kid's teachers to try to fill the gap. We want to make sure kids are equipped with everything they need to have a successful school year.

Every year we add new elements to my giveaways to meet the needs of the families and kids in my community. Last year we did backpacks, supplies, books, uniforms, undergarments, toiletries, and a truckload of fresh produce. This year we are focusing on backpacks, toiletries and uniforms again. This year's goal is 1,000 backpacks. If we hit that goal we will be at 20,000 backpacks given out since I began this project at 8 years old.