Young woman transitioning out of foster care gifted car

"I get to go see my mom," she said of her foster mother in Akron, whom she has not been able to see in person for three years. Richland County commissioners also gave her gas money.

Craig Underwood, owner of New Haven Auto Sales, said he read about her story, "Aging Out of the Foster Care System ... What now?" after she spoke at a forum at Ohio State University at Mansfield.

He knew he had to help, he told media in the employee garage at Richland County Children Services Wednesday afternoon.

Mary Emerson gives thanks in prayer after receiving the Jeep Patriot. Jason J. Moylet /News Journal 

"Anyone who can go through what she went through and still persevere, you have to help those people," Underwood said. "It touched my heart and I had the means to help so I thought, why not me? I'll just take care of it for her. And I think she'll do great things."

Underwood said Mary is very deserving and he believes the sky is the limit for her.

"Anyone could have done the same thing I did, but I felt it was my turn," he said.

Mary, who was a foster youth emancipated from Richland County, Ohio, was homeless for a year or two living on the streets.

Born in Mansfield, Mary said she was raised "everywhere else" and found her way back to Mansfield then reconnected with Mary Stephan, who is her independent living caseworker at Richland County Children Services.

Mary was in and out of foster care all her life, Stephan said.

Stephan said Mary was referred to the Bridges program through the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services where she got help to find an apartment.

Mary graduated from Cypress High School in Mansfield and plans to enroll in a Madison Adult Education program; she wants to go to college.

"I want to be a doctor," she said.

Emotional, she told the crowd of well-wishers who gathered from Children Services that she thought she was going to become a statistic.

"I was so scared," she said, fighting back tears.

She said she wanted to thank God because he made the people who have a good heart who helped her.

"It really is the people who barely know you that help you the most," Mary said.

Over and over, she talked about driving to see her foster mother. She was ready to go Wednesday.