Beyoncé and the Michigan Beyhive Cut $82K Check for Flint Water Crisis Victims

Impact

It's already been established that pop icon Beyoncé is woke.

Here's yet another reason not to question her social justice credentials: ahead of her Formation World Tour stop in Detroit on Tuesday, the pop icon cut an $82,234 check to residents of nearby Flint, Michigan, who remain cautious about drinking the city's water, the Associated Press reported.

The majority black and poor city of nearly 100,000 people drew nationwide attention, after reports that state officials ignored or disregarded complaints about the water for more than a year.

Daniela Vesco/AP

This time, it was the singer's fans who pitched in to help the water crisis victims.

Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé's management company, announced Monday that it had presented the United Way of Genesee County with the check. The money was raised by members of the Beyhive who agreed to contribute to a Flint funs when they purchased their tickets for her Detroit show, according to the Detroit News.

Fourteen Detroit-area high school students were also chosen to receive college scholarships and were gifted tickets to Tuesday night's concert at Ford Field, AP reported.

Daniela Vesco/AP

Beyonce's activism credits include a hat tip to Black Lives Matter and support for Trayvon Martin's family.

The singer and her rapper-husband, Jay Z, became public supporters of the Trayvon Martin family in 2013, after the acquittal of the black teen's killer, George Zimmerman. The couple was rumored to have quietly donated money to help protesters arrested during civil unrest in Baltimore after Freddie Gray's police involved death in April 2015.

Beyoncé recently tapped Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother, for the Lemonade visual album that she released in April. The project also featured Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Mike Brown, an 18-year-old killed in 2014 by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; and Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, a 43-year-old held in a New York police officer's fatal chokehold in 2014.

Carlos Osorio/AP

It was unclear Tuesday how the United Way would distribute or use the money for Flint residents. The repairs needed on the city's water infrastructure are expected to cost as much as a billion and a half dollars. Nevertheless, this donation provides some public help after officials went back and forth over who at the state and federal levels should assume financial responsibility for the repairs.