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“You could see a homeless person and not even
realize it,” Finiff says. “Most of my friends didn’t
know until they asked if they could come over.”
taking her children away just because they were in shelter, but that’s not
the norm,” Knight says. “It’s sort of an egregious example of why people
worry.”
In August, Finiff began her sophomore year at Isaac Bear Early
College High School where she is taking junior and senior courses. She
is completing her required volunteer hours and has already volunteered
for the interfaith hospitality network.
Once her sophomore year is complete, she will be finished with high
school courses and will begin taking free courses through the University
of North Carolina Wilmington.
“When I first got here, I wanted to be a detective, and then I wanted
to be a marine biologist, and then a forensic anthropologist and then a
writer and then a journalist,” she says.
She now wants to be the person who sits and talks with hospital
patients to make them feel better.
She would tell someone who is now in a similar position to hers to
focus on school, be kind to her parents and only ask for necessities.
“Even though you love your parents to death, you don’t want to be in
the same place they’re at right now,” Finiff says. “I mean let’s face it, a
house is more important than a cell phone or a computer or new shoes.”
From top: The Abernathy family gathers in the Good
Shepherd Center day shelter in August 2013. Homeless
upon their arrival in Wilmington, Corey Finiff and her family
received help from the Wilmington Interfaith Hospitality
Network and Good Shepherd Center before finding
permanent housing.
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