Chicago fireman collecting 1,500 cases of water to bring to Flint, Mich.

When Chicago firefighter Eric Washington got wind of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., he thought of his own childhood growing up in Jeffery Manor on the Far South Side: Both are predominantly black communities that are too often deprived of essential resources.

That empathy is what led Washington to step in and get involved, pledging to collect 1,500 cases of bottled water to donate to the Michigan city, which has been plagued by lead-contaminated drinking water for almost two years… Please click here to read Evan Moore’s story in DNAinfo Chicago.