Grosse Pointe Park Lawyer Camps Out For A Cause

Grosse Pointe Park attorney Lisa Walinske set up an outdoor camp in Jefferson Chalmers a month ago, swearing she’d sleep outside until she raised $18,500 to support the legal aid law practice she operates for low-income clients in Detroit. With temperatures last week dipping to the low teens, Walisnke told the Detroit Free Press she wasn’t sure she could continue, but that the cause mattered more than comfort.

"People in this neighborhood really need legal justice and they just can't afford to hire a lawyer," she told the Free Press, from the lean-to shack she made outside her offices at ReDetroitEast Community Law Center.

Late last week, her long vigil ended when a man dropped off a check for $500 - meeting the fundraising goal set on her campaign's GoFundMe page. That man, Wayne County Chief Circuit Judge Robert Columbo Jr, initially asked Freep reporters to keep his gift anonymous. According to ReDetroit East’s website, the funds will allow the nonprofit to “hire a staff person and to pay winter heating bills for our community properties where we house would-be homeless people and families.”

Read full coverage of this story in the Detroit Free Press.

Photos via ReDetroit East.