Detroit Cobbler Moe Draper Serves All Souls

[Pam]

I don't think I've ever heard of this guy but after googling I see he's been covered in the Freep before. Posting here for anyone else who missed it.


https://www.yahoo.com/makers/maker-f...737540375.html

In the unheated concrete-block he rents in Detroit’s open-air Eastern Market, Draper serves anyone who needs shoes repaired, regardless of whether they can pay.

[Zacha341]

Awesome story! He needs to get into a warm setting though.

[Gannon]

The gals at my partner's office swear by this fellow's work, too. They won't go anywhere else for shoe repairs. I'm not surprised to hear he is altruistic and community-centered.

Now, if we can get a fund to help him apprentice a few more like him...that is where some of the mayor's development funding should go. Folks like Moe are the heart and soul of Detroit.


Cheers!

[Gannon]

He needs to get into a warm setting though.

They apparently are working on that.

The Drapers hope to open a second shoe-repair shop on the city's west side in 2015. The new shop will be at 18716 Grand River, between Southfield and Evergreen.

from: http://www.freep.com/story/life/fami...less/20740845/


I hated to hear this part of that Freep article:

Afterward, Draper tells me: "Now you can see why I got the dog. You know, people just walk up like that all the time. It literally got to the point where people would just watch and wait when my wife had to walk out to take the baby somewhere, and then they'd hassle her. Thieves used to wait outside.


"A lot of the homeless guys in the area will try to steal the donations, or have stolen the donations. A couple have been honest and have come back and said 'Hey, I took it or whatever.' They bring it back because they realize how this plays out. To keep them coming back, I give them more boots or I give them my own work boots or whatever."


Though it is disheartening to see the very people he aims to help do him harm, Draper says he chooses to focus instead on the good that comes from ministering to those in need.

Remembering some of my interactions with a few of the more aggressive homeless folk in the Market when I lived there...ugh.

[Hypestyles]

Kudos to this gentleman, for sure

[canuck]

I wonder if our man Draper read the article on mr Robertson and started cobbling a pair of boots for him until he read about the funding and the Ford...