TAMPA, Fla. — Kenitra Lofton, a single mom in Hillsborough County with six children, had tears rolling down her cheeks – they were purely from happiness as Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka steered a new Toyota sedan, then handed her the keys, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The car was a gift from One More Child, a nonprofit organization that helps single mothers, foster children, struggling families and survivors of human trafficking.
Lofton’s joy was especially poignant since she had not owned a vehicle since her car was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since then she was forced to walk everywhere — to work, to the store as well as with her kids to and from their school.
But Tryon-Shoyinka was not prepared for this moment,, despite the fact that he had worked with the organization for a couple of years previously.
“She was very thankful, and I had no words,” Tryon-Shoyinka said. “It was really emotional for me.
“I didn’t really think it would be emotional. Then I’m in the car and I’m driving it toward her and I see her and I’m like, ‘This is life-changing.’”
As the son of Andrea Tryon, a single mom in Seattle who raised him and his sister Julia single-handedly, the story of this single mom’s struggles touched a chord with him from the beginning.
“She made it look easy, but I know it was anything but easy,” Tryon-Shoyinka said. “I never missed any meals, anything like that. She made sure all the essentials were there. She took me to practice or making sure my grandma or uncle got me to practice or picked me up from school. We had a tight-knit family. It was an awesome experience because, being a single mom, that’s hard.”
Andrea always struggled to make ends meet and take care of young Joe and Julia. Joe’s father was gone from the family home by the time he was 1. But even though he didn’t have a man in his life every day, his mom dedicated herself to raising him right.
“It’s very hard. You never know what you’re going to be able to give your kids, because the paycheck gets stretched very thin,” Andrea explained. “So we reached out. There was a lot of community involvement. We worked a lot with the YMCA. Scholarships for daycare. I did a lot of volunteer work ever since the kids were little, because I wanted to give back what the kids were getting.”
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Pictured: Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and his mother Andrea Tryon ( Photo by Kyle Zedaker/One More Child)
