- All right, well, we all know
how hard people have been hit by the pandemic.
And the people of Detroit have faced
some of the biggest challenges actually,
in fact, Wayne County, where Detroit is,
has the fifth most confirmed
cases of coronavirus nationwide.
So, I wanted to check in with Anthony White,
the director of the Detroit youth choir
to see how the choir is doing.
What's up Anthony, can you hear me?
- Hello, hello, hello.
- Okay, I love having you back on
and for all the viewers that didn't see
that episode in particular,
can you tell them about the choir?
- Yes, the Detroit Youth Choir,
of course, is a local nonprofit organization
right here in the city of Detroit.
We service young people between the ages
of eight through 18 in the performing arts,
and we not only perform here in the city of Detroit,
we perform nationwide.
And also we were finalists, of course,
on America's Got Talent season fourteen.
So, that's a big deal.
And we also are graduating eight seniors
out of the choir like right now, 2020.
- Oh that's, man, that's a bittersweet thing,
'cause I was a part of a choir growing up,
and that's a, man. - For sure
- You love to see people,
you know, have new challenges and go on their way
and do things, but at the same time,
you've created such a bond for years,
that it's weird to have them not in the choir,
you know? - Yes.
- That's such a bittersweet thing.
- Bittersweet all the time.
- Well, you've, this is one thing
I loved about you when you were on the show,
but then you actually, you know, practice what you preach
and you've continued to help lift up spirits
in your community since the pandemic hit.
So can you tell everybody how y'all been doing that?
- Well, of course, you know, when the pandemic hit,
all of our performances were canceled or reschedule.
So, thanks to a few organization
right here in the city of Detroit,
such as The Detroit Pistons,
we work with them for a PSA.
And the PSA, we sung "Stand by Me".
So that was fun.
And some other local dealerships around the city
really helped us kinda keep working.
- It also keeps them, you know, busy
and looking out for other people
and doing things for other people.
It's a really, really cool thing.
But, Anthony, your members and their families
have faced real struggles with this still, right?
- Yes, unfortunately, we had some families
hit by the coronavirus
and one of our families
that was hit the hardest was the Haileys.
Actually Aloysius and his wife contracted the virus.
They are two of our most dedicated parents.
And actually, Mr. Hailey is our parent coordinator,
one of our parent coordinators.
It took a toll on his family because he couldn't,
you know, work of course, because he had the virus,
and his daughters had to actually take care of them
and kinda run the household a little bit.
So I just like to, you know,
say what a great job that he did,
overcoming that virus and actually getting back on his feet.
- [Aloysius] Hi, county, my name is Aloysius.
- [Sharon] And I'm Sharon.
- We are proud residents of the city of Detroit.
We raised our girls here.
- [Sharon] The virus hit Detroit hard.
- I contracted COVID at a church event
and didn't know I had it when I came home.
And, you know, it breaks my heart to know
that I gave it to my wife.
- We both had at the same time,
so we had to go into quarantine at the same time
and we had to be so careful
not to spread it to our daughters,
and we barely came out of our room for weeks.
- [Aloysius] And of course, neither one of us could work.
- [Sharon] Our daughters had to take care of us.
- So right now, money is tight,
we're living on our savings.
It just feels like everything is spinning out of control.
This is the first time in our lives
that we're just not sure if we gonna make it through this.
And that's what scares us.
- All right, so we have the Haileys on the line right now.
Aloysius, Sharon and their youngest daughter, Azaria.
Hey what's up, y'all?
How you doing?
- Hey. - Hey, how are you?
- Okay, first of all, Aloysius,
you have such great beard game.
I mean, it's stellar.
That is the best beard game, I love it.
- I appreciate it, thank you.
- How are you and Sharon doing?
I heard that y'all contracted corona.
Are you feeling okay?
- Yeah, we're pretty good.
You know, it took about a,
we were down for about a month or so
with the virus and that,
but, you know, and it wreaked havoc on our bodies real bad
and, you know, it just went all the way through us
and so, you know, we recovered through that.
But with that said, you know, we feel blessed,
we feel fortunate to be here
because so many people has perished
through this whole thing,
including I had a couple of co-workers
and some friends and we had
a couple of parents of Detroit youth choir
to leave us because of the virus.
So, you know, that took a lot out of us.
You know, we felt bad about that.
But, you know, we're blessed to be here.
- I'm so happy that y'all are feeling better.
I know that a lot of people, you know,
we've lost a lot of people to this
and too many that I feel like
we could have helped, you know.
Okay, so Aloysius and Sharon,
you're getting back on your feet,
but there's still financial uncertainty, right?
I know that's for a lot of people right now.
- Right. - Yeah, yeah,
well, you know, we tapped into some of our savings
and assembly's money helped us a lot with that, you know.
And then also, my wife, she's on a one day furlough
and could possibly, you know, be laid off for a while
'cause she works for the state of Michigan.
So, you know, it's really, you know,
although we've gotten back,
but it's still touch and go for us, you know, so.
- I know unfortunately, that's the story
for a lot of families.
Go ahead, Sharon, I'm sorry.
- Like right now we're trying to be very intentional
with our spending, you know,
we're a little more frugal than we were before, you know.
And just, you know, trying to,
you know, right now we're kind of on our feet, you know,
but we're just trying to stay there, you know.
- And you know what,
I hadn't even been able to talk to you, Ma'am,
but, Azaria, like that, since both of your parents are down,
I just wanna come back to you for a second.
I mean, that kinda puts you in charge
probably a little bit and had to help out
and kinda step up a bit, right?
- Yes.
- Yeah, I mean, was that hard?
Yeah, 'cause basically, I was like their parents,
just like making sure they were eating
and doing everything for them to feel better.
- Yeah, that's a lot, you know, on kids' shoulders,
but it's amazing, you know,
what kind of responsibility you see
kids kinda bring to the table
when they're tasked with it.
And it's also a really good sign
of you two being great parents
that your kid, you know, stepped up to the challenge
and was able to do it and, you know,
y'all still maintained some kind of healthy state of mind
in not wanting to kill each other in quarantine.
But anyway, we want to do our part
to help y'all as well, all right, the Haileys.
It's just such a great story.
So, Aloysius and Sharon,
June is National Homeowners Month.
So, we know that you've had some setbacks
maintaining the American Dream
you've worked very hard to build,
and you do work hard for and you get sick and things happen,
and it's out of your hands.
So, that's why we're gonna be covering your mortgage
for the rest of 2020.
- Wow.
- Oh my God.
- We just wanted to make sure
that you weren't worried about that
for the rest of the year
and you can leave your heart and mind
in what you're really good at,
and that's like being such a light in your community.
- Thank you so much.
- Yes, all right, y'all.
Well, y'all stay healthy and y'all stay safe.