Help Kemya and her family keep their home!

Kemya and Jarrell Wingfield and their beautiful family need our help! For months, they have been quietly dealing with financial hardships in their small business that have depleted their savings and are now affecting their ability to pay the mortgage on their home. They will have to move out of the Bay Area within 2-3 months if things don’t turn around. Kemya and her family are a critical part of our community, and we need them to stay here! So we are asking folks to come together to help raise the funds necessary to repair their tow truck, which is their sole source of income.

Kemya and her family run a small business called On Call Towing Services. (A great towing company that community members have called on when needed!) They have one tow truck, and a few months ago, their truck started having problems with its DPF exhaust, which costs $5,000 to replace. They have been spending hundreds of dollars a month on band-aid solutions to keep the truck running while they try to save the funds to replace the part, but now other parts on the truck are going bad as a result of the deferred maintenance. The parts the truck needs now total $6,400.

On top of this, the Wingfields have to limit use of the truck while it is in this condition, which reduces their income, and makes it even more impossible to save money for the repairs they need. Kemya got a job at the new fitness center at The Black Panther Apartments in West Oakland to bring in more income, but the fitness center’s opening has been delayed, so she doesn’t know when that income will start coming in. In the meantime, the situation has snowballed, and their savings are gone. They are now at the point where they are having to choose which bills to pay, including their mortgage, and are seriously facing having to leave our community.

Please help the Wingfields get their tow truck back on the road so they can turn their finances around and stay in the Bay Area! We are also seeking the funds to pay their mortgage this month, while the truck is getting repaired:

$6,400 tow truck parts

$3,400 mortgage payment

If you know Kemya, you know that she gives so much of herself to our community. Whether it is volunteering weekly at Panther Skate Plaza (through all of this!) or showing up to all kinds of community events and documenting them with her beautiful Reels, she gives so much of her time to supporting others. And she’s not just important to us: she is also the primary caretaker for her grandmother and disabled uncle. Through all of this, she has been struggling with financial hardship behind the scenes. We want to show her that her community has her back, we need her here, and she doesn’t have to go through this alone.

Please donate as you are able and share widely!