A Lorain city council member is making an effort to ensure residents stay dry when it's wet out. In February, Councilmember JoAnne Moon began handing out umbrellas on rainy days.
“I just don’t like to see people walking in the rain wet,” Moon said about what inspired her. “I would see someone walking in the rain wet, and I would be like, ‘Oh God, that person is walking in the rain.’ I didn’t like seeing that.”
Moon has been a council member since 2016 but said she has long believed in giving back to the community.
“I grew up in a house where you gave and where you were kind to people,” Moon said. “Especially when they need something, the bible says feed them, clothe them and that’s what I’m doing.”
The project came about with the help of the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority, which is focused on providing housing to low-income people and families in Lorain County.
“I was just running my mouth,” Moon said, “saying that when I’m someplace at a beauty store or getting my hair done, if an umbrella had been there for a while, I would kind of sneak them out and as I’m driving, and it was raining, I would give umbrellas to the people.”
Moon received a call from the housing authority asking her to meet with them. To her surprise they had collected over 300 umbrellas. Moon and LMHA have gone to different housing centers around the city handing out the umbrellas.
“It was raining when we were doing this project, so they gave us more umbrellas,” Moon said. “As we were driving, I would see people walking, and I would hand out umbrellas. I saw a mother and her two children walking in the rain and I said, ‘Would you like an umbrella’ and the little girl goes, ‘Oh, I’ve never had an umbrella’. So, they got umbrellas out of my trunk.”
Moon represents Ward 5 in Lorain City Council, but she said she plans to hand out umbrellas all over the city.