Allen Park resident Mia Howard, 17, was killed in a car crash Sept. 22 in Romulus while driving with her cousin, Faith Howard.
By ZEINAB NAJM
Sunday Times Newspapers
ALLEN PARK — Allen Park High School senior Mia Howard, 17, died after a car crash in Romulus Sept. 22. Howard’s cousin Faith Howard also was in the vehicle and is recovering following the crash which involved an intoxicated driver.
A GoFundMe page has raised $6,875 of its $10,000 goal as of Sept. 30. To donate go to https://gofund.me/4059de50.
To honor Mia Howard’s memory and to raise awareness and resources to prevent drunken driving accidents, money is being raised to donate to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Donations will also go toward a billboard on I-94.
According to the obituary, Mia Howard was an honor student in school, attended Allen Park High School and had plans on becoming a dental hygienist.
“For those who knew Mia, knew that she was a very caring, loving individual and loved everything life had to offer,” the obituary said. “Mia loved all animals of all sizes. She was passionate about her family and friends and was with them every moment possible. She truly is someone that will be dearly missed, dearly loved and certainly never forgotten.”
Councilman and teacher at APHS Daniel Loyd said it was a tough week at the high school after finding out about Mia Howard’s death. He asked for a moment of silence during the Sept. 28 City Council meeting.
“It’s events like that that very much remind me of the strength and power of community,” Loyd said at the meeting. “We’ve all suffered it. When we suffer loss, it’s like an entire world is destroyed. When you lose somebody, you lose that knowledge you lost that light that that person brought into the world and it is something that is incredibly difficult to cope with, and I many times reflected that if it wasn’t for the community that we have around us all that it would be impossible.
“I was very impressed with the strength of our community this week as we mourned the death of Mia and the loss of not having her in our hallways, in our lives anymore has left.”
Councilman and also teacher at Woodhaven High School Matthew Valerius said once the principal at WHS found out about Mia Howard’s passing, all school members and students attending the football game against APHS wore Mia Howard’s favorite color, blue despite the western them planned for the Homecoming game.
Funeral services were held at Michigan Memorial Funeral Home followed by Mia Howard taken by horse-drawn carriage to Michigan Memorial Park for entombment.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Students Against Destructive Decisions, www.sadd.org, according to the obituary.
Mia Howard leaves her parents, Dennis Howard and Kristina Beaver, along with siblings Jessica Mitchell, Brittany Lyall, Demetrio Nasol, Halie Howard, Kendra Clark, Faith Howard, Gunnar Kaye and Kristian Trey.
She was an aunt to Henry, Violet, Easton and Lydia. She was a granddaughter, niece, cousin and girlfriend.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)