Automaker provides boots, socks to dozens of homeless amid winter storm – By Omar Abdel-Baqui (Detroit Free Press) / Jan 12 2020
When a winter storm like the one that hit Michigan this weekend strikes, many across metro Detroit aim to remain indoors, and even when traveling, they do so from the comfort of their toasty vehicle.
Some aren’t so lucky and are forced to spend their days and nights on the street, wading through puddles, trudging through snow and sleeping outside in the bitter cold.
To help, Toyota Motor North America partnered with The Salvation Army Detroit Harbor Light for the ninth straight year, providing new insulated boots and wool socks to over 150 homeless residents of The Salvation Army’s shelter in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood Saturday.
As Toyota and Salvation Army employees helped Jaylah Hambrick Daniel, 4, put on her new boots, her excitement could not be contained. She stood up smiling ear to ear, sporting her new purple-lined boots that matched her purple jacket and embraced the Toyota employee who placed the boots on her feet, thanking her, eliciting a chorus of “awww”s from the shelter residents, journalists and Toyota and Salvation Army employees watching.
The four-year-old’s mother, Jana Hambrick, said it was a beautiful thing to see.
“As a single mother, a lot of people don’t understand how hard it is to sacrifice for your children,” Hambrick said. “This was a friendly reminder that I wasn’t forgotten about, and that I matter, and that we matter, and that you’re not alone. People do care.”
Continue to article: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2020/01/12/toyota-salvation-army-homeless-winter-boots-socks/4442292002/
Jaylah Hambrick Daniel, 4, becomes excited as she and her sister, Joey, 14, receive new boots. (Photo: Omar Abdel-Baqui)
