WASHINGTON, D.C. (WUSA) - The city of Detroit's population has plummeted, unemployment is sky high,.nd it has 13-billion dollars in long term debt.
But this past week the Motor City turned out to be a lot richer than anybody thought.
Joshua Smith is 9 years old and he couldn't understand why the park up the street from his house in Detroit had too much trash and weeds for him to play.
The grownups said the city is too broke to cut the grass and clean up. That apparently little Joshua understood because this past Monday Joshua opened a lemonade stand to raise money to help Detroit pay the bills. The goal: raise a thousand bucks by the end of the week. Monday's take? $32.
But on Tuesday something grand happened. People heard about the big hearted boy on the west side of town, still innocent enough to believe that one guy with a dream and a lemonade stand was enough to matter.
Donations and customers started pouring in from all over the world, and Joshua had his thousand bucks by Wednesday. So he doubled his goal to $2,000 and he made that yesterday.
What's more, he's heard from the Mayor. The city council is giving him an award. Everyone wants to be part of this perhaps because they sense this could be start of something special. Not that $2,000 would even make a dent in Detroit's money problems. No.
But inspire a few more citizens to have the faith and can-do spirit of Joshua Smith. And all of a sudden, you're on the way to a helluva down payment.