She is best known for raising awareness about the Flint water crisis and for fundraising to support underprivileged children in her community and across the country.

When Copeny was 8 years old, she wrote a letter to the President Barack Obama in order to draw attention to the water crisis in her hometown of Flint, Michigan.

[5] Since then, measures have been taken to help eradicate the problem, but effects continue to be felt by Flint's residents and necessary repairs, to infrastructure will not be complete until 2020 at the earliest.

Media coverage of Copeny's work has made reference to her as "Little Miss Flint", a nickname that was coined following her win at a beauty contest in 2015.

[10] Copeny's other initiatives include the Dear Flint Kids project, a request for letters of encouragement to the children of Flint; a crowdsourcing effort to distribute free copies of the book, A Wrinkle in Time;[5] Christmas parties and Easter baskets for the underprivileged; and supporting local school systems to provide anti-bullying programming.