By Fletcher Word
The Truth Editor
It was another delightful night aboard the Detroit Princess on Friday, August 16, as about 100 guests, mostly from Toledo, joined Donnetta Carter – the Social Butterfly – on a cruise of the Detroit River to enjoy a sumptuous buffet, to view the waterfront structures of Detroit and Windsor and to dance and sing along to music by the crowd-pleasing Prolifics, who once again dazzled their audience with their Motown renditions.
One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of a donation by Carter to the New Leaf Groups, Inc, a Toledo non-profit organization that assists the area’s unhoused, among other efforts.
Jenai Hicklin and three board members from New Leaf were on hand to accept the check. And two bus loads full of supporters joined them from the Toledo area. Hicklin, the founder and CEO of New Life, accepted on behalf of the group and described the three leaves of the organization.
“I am just shocked,” she said of the $2,000 gift. The first leaf, she explained, “is an after-school program that flows into our summer camp.” With the second leaf, “we feed 100 to 130 homeless – unhoused every day, I will be getting up tomorrow morning to prepare a hot meal.”
A women and men empowerment session that meets once a quarter is the third leaf, “because we believe mental health is real and we want a safer space for them to talk about the daily problems in their lives,” said Hicklin.
The Detroit Princess, in the meantime, cruised north past Bois Blanc (Boblo) Island and, turning, floated down past the Ambassador Bridge before turning again and returning to dock at around 9:30.
As the sun set and the ship cruised past the sights along the river, the guests on the second deck sang along to the music of the Temptations, the Miracles, the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and more – the Motown R & B legends of the 60s and 70s. The Prolifics, the house band for the Detroit Princess, were effusive in their praise for the enthusiastic audience.
The Prolifics concluded their act by re-imagining the famous Soul Train disco line and virtually every audience member strutted their stuff on the dance floor.
In addition to the Social Butterfly, other sponsors for the 11th annual Motown Dinner & Dance Cruise were Tayler Automotive and The Sojourner’s Truth.
