​Holland Regional Delivers Free Water Shipments to Flint

Recently some Holland Regional truck drivers worked with concerned Kansas City citizens to get donated water to Flint, Michigan.

The drivers work for Holland at the company's Kansas City terminal. They were recently approached by a Kansas City charity looking to provide help for Flint citizens dealing with the polluted water catastrophe. The group had collected two trailer loads of bottled water but needed a way to get it to Flint. Working with terminal management, the drivers got the load out for free.

The first shipment of water arrived in Flint, on a Holland truck, after a brief stop at the nearby Birch Run, Michigan terminal. It was unloaded in Flint on Friday, Jan 29 at Ebenezer Ministries' donation center. In total, the first shipment included 19 skids of water equaling 43,000 pounds, an estimated 48,000 bottles of water. Flint residents will use that water for everything from drinking to washing dishes.

Holland employees from the Birch Run facility not only delivered the water to Flint; they also boarded the church bus to help distribute it after unloading.

Three shipments have come in total so far. Holland also delivered 10 skids of water from Indianapolis. So, in 3 days Holland delivered 99,233 pounds of water--over 100,000 bottles of water donated by the employees of Allegion in Indianapolis and Janice Wit/Premium Waters in Kansas City.

Keith Soyza, Birch Run Terminal Mgr. says, "Holland is a company founded in Michigan with five service centers located in the state. This crisis is right in our backyard. We all felt we needed to help out in any way possible. What better way than delivering water to the people. After all, delivering the freight is what we do."

Kansas City water donator Janice Wit said, "Good people standing together to make our world better for all of us--that's what it's all about. I can’t speak highly enough about Holland. They were so amazing. Their hearts were so big."