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Donations pour in for Baltimore 'Mom of
Year' after house fire
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 [August 18, 2016]
(Reuters) - A Maryland woman who won
widespread praise for publicly scolding her teenage son during last
year's riots in Baltimore was made homeless by a house fire, but a flood
of donations had poured in to help her by Wednesday.
Video of Toya Graham's reprimand of her 16-year-old son Michael for
joining the riots went viral online after it was captured by a local
news station.
Graham was hailed by the city's police commissioner and heralded on
social media as "Mom of the Year" for the incident, in which she chased
her son, smacked him around the head and pulled him away from a group of
young rioters.
On Saturday, Graham and her family were displaced by an accidental fire
at their home, she said in a statement posted online.
Michael, now 17, was frying a snack when a grease fire started in the
pan, the statement said. The teenager, who was home alone at the time,
mistakenly threw water on the flames, which intensified the blaze.
No one was hurt in the incident, but a large area of the home was
destroyed.
A GoFundMe online fundraising page for the Grahams was launched on
Monday, with the goal of raising $5,000. By Wednesday afternoon it had
received more than $30,000 in donations, the website showed.
Baltimore's violent unrest erupted in April 2015 after the funeral for
Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who was fatally injured while in
police custody.
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Baltimore mother Toya Graham who famously waded into a riot to
retrieve her son Michael Singleton (L) stands with him after they
joined U.S. President Barack Obama in a televised town hall about
trust and safety in our communities in Washington July 14, 2016.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
The Baltimore television news station that originally videotaped
Graham said she saw her son throwing rocks while watching coverage
of the mayhem and ran out to stop him.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Alan Crosby)
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