ROCHESTER — The Anthony L. Jordan Health Center has joined with other area organizations to deliver clean water to the residents of Flint, Mich.
According to spokeswoman Chalonda James, the center collected $2,000 and more than 20,000 bottles of water, which were delivered to Flint’s Genesee Community Health Center at the beginning of this month by Leonard’s Express Trucking of Farmington.
United Way of Greater Rochester, Foodlink, the YWCA, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Rochester, Ibero-American Action League and several churches helped to collect donations for the shipment. Price Rite also donated two pallets containing 4,000 bottles of water
Local man helps provide water to Flint
"It was a decision to come together as a gesture for the people there," said Dr. David Broadbent, a retired physician who served three terms on Jordan Health’s board of directors.
Broadbent, who is a member of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s advisory council on lead poisoning and of the local Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning, said Rochester residents can empathize with Flint’s lead challenges.
The coalition — which comprises educators, social-justice advocates and leaders in the medical community — sounded the alarm about local lead poisoning a decade ago, he said. Yet there are still children living in Rochester who have not been tested for lead, which often is found in the paint of older homes.
Thus, the coalition’s work continues, Broadbent said, and the group stands in solidarity with Flint.
"We can’t begin to tell them how to solve their problems of lead poisoning," he remarked. "But you put yourself in a position where people come together to work for the common good and it will happen. (However), it won’t happen overnight."
