“My dad was deeply disappointed,” Davidson said.
Just one year after her daughter Amber was born, Davidson was divorced and struggling to care for herself and her baby. She asked her parents if she could move back home but they refused her, saying instead they would take her daughter.
“I was walking the streets of downtown Dayton and going to different shelters,” she said.
Homeless at 18, Davidson struggled for two years before finding the Dayton YWCA. The staff helped her get counseling and a rental house and she found a job.
Davidson remarried in 1989 and had her second daughter, Ashley, in 1990. Two years later, she was divorced for a second time.
“I was at my church in Northridge and had just gone through my second divorce,” Davidson said. “That’s where I met my husband, Scott Davidson.”
The couple has been married since 1992, and Davidson calls her husband “my savior.”
In 1995, Davidson’s third daughter, Brooke, was born and she was at last able to stay at home and raise her children without worrying about paying bills for the first time in her adult life.
“I started getting very active in social clubs,” Davidson said. “I became the president of the Northridge Optimist Club in 1999 and did that for two years.”
During her time with the Optimists, Davidson met Harrison Township Trustee Ron Casey, who became her mentor. Casey encouraged her to help the Police Athletic League, an organization that sponsored youth sports.
“When I came on board, I knew I wanted to expand the program,” Davidson said. “I started raising funds by writing grants.”
The National Police Athletic League sent her to Johns Hopkins University to learn more about grant writing and fundraising. She brought all of her education and skills back to Montgomery County and in 2006, she was named the National Woman Volunteer of the year.
“We started doing after school programs in underprivileged neighborhoods with kids and police officers,” Davidson said.
Davidson and her partners focused on meeting the personal needs of the children — from getting them clothing and shoes to haircuts. They invited students from local colleges to volunteer and help with homework.
“We worked with parents who were also struggling too and helped them study for their GED’s,” Davidson said.
The program was so successful that eventually the space in Northland Village was too small. Davidson wrote a grant to Advil Corporation, which was awarding money to “relieve your congestion.”
Davidson’s request was successful and the group was awarded $60,000 to expand the space, buy computers and furniture.
Davidson watched kids that previously had no hope for successful futures graduate from high school and get full ride scholarships to college, and become successful authors, pastors and professional football players. But in 2018, Davidson developed diverticulitis and was hospitalized with severe pain. She told her husband that she believed “God was done with me.”
But while in the hospital, a young man was wheeling her in for a scan and asked her if she recognized him. He told Davidson that he had been one of her “kids” at Northland Village.
“He waited for me to come back and helped me get to my room,” Davidson said. “I was still crying but this time it was different. I knew I had more to do.”
Davidson and her husband built a house near a pond on four acres in Huber Heights. They developed Peace and Tranquility Lake Corporation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to family and youth outreach.
“The idea was to get kids hooked on fishing, not on drugs,” Davidson said.
Davidson noticed that Huber Heights was often mentioned in the local news, but the stories weren’t usually positive. One day she spotted a large house elaborately decorated for Halloween and got an idea.
“I talked to a woman who gave me all the addresses of houses in Huber that were decorated for Halloween,” Davidson said.
She created the “Huber Haunt” in 2018 — a map experience that encouraged families and kids to have a free fun day together.
Davidson has kept the event going, adding games with cash prizes and attendees. She also developed a “zombie walk,” held at Thomas Cloud Park, and added a trunk-or-treat event. Two-thousand people attended the first one in 2022.
Now held at the Rose Music Center, the event attracted 10,000 people last year. It included free concerts on the stage, monster truck rides, a virtual reality ride, 300 crafters and vendors and 32 food trucks.
The group officially became Huber Heights Community Cares in 2020 and has added events during the Christmas and Easter seasons.
“We want to do things that let the children of the community know how much they are loved,” Davidson said.
As Davidson looks back on her very full life, she realizes her compassion was inspired by her experience as a homeless youth and by the people who stepped up to help her.
“I wish every community would do these things,” Davidson said. “There are people out there that would love to be part of something like this.”
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