Florida church where 15-year-old made plea to be adopted is 'flooded' with offers of help
Davion Navar Henry Only made his appeal at the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church two weeks ago
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Your support makes all the difference.A Florida church, where a 15-year-old orphan who has been passed around the care system made an emotional plea for someone to adopt him, has been 'flooded' with phone calls offering to help.
Davion Navar Henry Only made his appeal at the St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church two weeks ago.
The story of his speech, which he delivered dressed in a borrowed suit and tie, went viral - prompting what Cynthia Coney, a secretary at the church, described as an "awesome outpour".
The Tampa Bay Times told how Davion had spoken nervously to the congregation saying: “I've been in foster care since I was born...I know God hasn't given up on me. So I'm not giving up either."
"I'll take anyone. Old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don't care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be."
The boy, who was born while his mother was in jail, has so far spent his childhood in care at countless foster homes. For the last few years he has lived at the Carlton Manor residential group home in Eckerd with 12 other boys.
Earlier this year, armed with a copy of his birth certificate, he made a bid to find his biological mother La-Dwina Ilene "Big Dust" McCloud. He found her mug-shot and details of her arrests for theft and possession of cocaine. He also discovered that she had died in Florida, aged 55, just a few weeks earlier.
"When I found out all that stuff about my family, it made me want to be more successful, no matter what," Davion told ABC News.
"I don't want to go down that same path."
He suggested to his caseworker that he make an appeal at the St Petersburg church to find adoptive parents. In prearation he lost 40lb on a diet and focussed on his school work achieving A grades in almost all of his subjects.
Cynthia Coney told Fox News that following reports of Davion's appeal the church had "been getting calls from as far as Utah and forwarding them to his adoption agency."
According to recent figures from the US Department of Health and Human Services there are currently 399,548 children in foster care in the US, with their average age being nine.
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