Foundation brightens holiday of kids who have lost parents

Sterling Heights — Birmingham attorney Norman Yatooma knows the pain of losing a parent and how that can affect a child.

His father, Manuel Yatooma, was shot to death in 1993, trying to stop a carjacking. Norman Yatooma was a college student at the time.

On Thursday, he hosted 275 local children and their families for a holiday party for Yatooma’s Foundation for the Kids at the Best Western Sterling Inn Water Park.

The children were treated to a night of fun that featured hours in the hotel’s water park complex and a visit from Santa.

“To see this kind of work in my father’s name is beautiful and a silver lining,” said Yatooma, who launched the nonprofit foundation on Father’s Day in 2003 to offer guidance and financial help for children who have lost a parent.

Highland Park resident Kathlene Sammons, a 49-year-old grandmother caring for six of her daughter’s children, said the foundation goes “above and beyond the call of duty” as she watched them splash in the wave pools.

Sammons said the Yatooma Foundation has provided counselors and mentors for her grandchildren, ages 4 to 15 years old.

The Yatooma Foundation even paid for a graduation trip for Sammons’ 15-year-old granddaughter, Antoinette Robinson.

Andrea Medulla of Hazel Park brought her three daughters to the party Thursday.

Medulla, 30, said she found help through the foundation when her husband, Nicholas, died of a heart problem three years ago.

“If you’re ever in need of having a bill paid or putting food on the table, they’re there,” said Medulla, whose daughters range from 2 ½ to 12 years old.

At the party, a table full of wrapped gifts awaited the children. Each family also took home a gift basket.

Corporate sponsors Art Van Furniture and MuniVest Financial Group also contributed to the party, Yatooma said.