In addition to her major announcement of a world tour on Sunday, Beyoncé also released more news about what she’ll be up to in 2016. Perhaps most importantly, the singer’s charity initiative, BeyGood, is starting a fund in support of local United Way programs to bring aid to the residents of Flint, Michigan.
The city has been suffering from extremely high levels of lead in the water, and the United Way of Genesee County has been distributing filtration pitchers, faucet mount filters, replacement cartridges, and truckloads of clean water to families in Flint. BeyGood is also partnering with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint to establish a long-term program to serve the educational, nutritional, and health needs of Flint’s children.
While celebrities like Cher, Aretha Franklin, Mark Wahlberg, Eminem, and Wiz Khalifa have been a huge part of the effort, we can only imagine what an impact this particular fund will have, considering both the press surrounding the tour announcement (plus the surprise single video) and Beyoncé’s distinguished knack for amassing ticket sales. Between the Formation tour tickets and the new line of merch, fans should already be starting up Beyoncé-specific savings funds, so the Flint benefit announcement comes at an ideal time.
It is clear from both the brand new “Formation” video and her Super Bowl halftime performance that Beyoncé is tackling some major issues this year, primarily police brutality. For a celebrity who has been accused of staying too quiet on such issues in the past, Beyoncé is certainly not holding back this time. By addressing the Black Lives Matter cause, she has generated a heightened amount of Internet buzz on the topic in the past twenty four hours. Since both the video and performance have reignited some important dialogue, hopefully, her Flint initiative will have a similarly large impact.
We’re looking forward to seeing just how to get involved with the fund to benefit Flint. For now, the tour’s press release points to BeyGood’s Twitter as the best source for details.
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Text Blair Cannon
Image via Instagram