OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - An Omaha man has capped off 365 days of charity work by donating a car to a man in need.
Mickey Manley, 31, made it his goal last July to spend an hour every day making a difference in the Omaha community. The pledge has included cleaning veterans’ graves, volunteering at a nursing home and donating small amounts of money to local charities.
“If we took the population of Omaha and put that into just one hour per person per year, the equivalence would be weeks and weeks’ worth of workers’ time,” Manley said.
He gave a 1993 Acura to a resident of a local homeless shelter called the Siena-Francis House earlier this week, the Omaha World-Herald reported .
Manley said he didn’t do much charity work for most of his life until his father took his own life in 2013.
“After that happened I kind of took a step back and looked at my life,” he said. “I wasn’t a bad person, but it really made me look at myself and what I was doing.”
Manley co-created a nonprofit called We Can Make a Difference through which he and two friends distributed bottled water, socks and other items to the homeless population in downtown Omaha. He also gets together with 12 volunteers each month to serve lunch at homeless shelters.
“What I’m doing now is what I think he would have done had he been able to overcome that darkness,” he said about his father.
Rod Bauer, director of day services at the Siena-Francis House, said Manley has a big heart for helping others.
“He simply understands that some people are dealt really bad cards and maybe he was dealt better cards and wants to help,” Bauer said.
Manley said he hopes his yearlong effort encourages others to volunteer or donate.
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Information from: Omaha World-Herald, https://www.omaha.com
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