Tireless Bradenton single mom gets boost from Season of Sharing after storm damage

Panic gripped Kim Hinkle as her mind registered the images caught by her flashlight near midnight on an evening in late September: floodwater was rushing into the parking lot in front of her home on the Manatee River.

Echoing all around Kim in the pitch darkness were the screams of neighbors who had waited too long to leave – and now were trapped in their cars, calling for help.

As she and her mom and children stood at the elevated building entrance watching storm surge from Hurricane Helene swallow their cars, Kim hurried everyone inside, struggling to keep a strong face.

“It was surreal to see all the water coming,” she said. “It’s just a very hopeless, helpless feeling.”

Absorbing a work ethic

Kim's single mother always had two or three jobs and studied to improve her life.

“Mom showed me work ethic,” Kim recalled. “I never had an easy life but had a loving home. We always had each other.”

She and her mom were always close and lived together many times over the years in Orlando and Tennessee. In 2007, after the death of Carolyn's husband, she moved in permanently with Kim and the grandchildren, Nicholas and Ashley Grace.

“She has been my biggest supporter,” Kim said.

For the next seven years, as Kim worked 60 to 70 hours a week as a hotel manager in Tennessee, her mom oversaw the household — shopping, cooking, and taking care of the kids.

Then, in 2014. Kim accepted a job transfer near Lakewood Ranch. But just a few months after the family moved here, she was laid off by the hotel.

Not sitting still, Kim found several new jobs in the same office – with the Manatee Chamber of Commerce; Bradenton Area EDC; and United Way – as well as Publix.

Eventually, she switched to a sales and customer service position at Feld Entertainment in Palmetto. The next three years life was stable, fun and happy. The kids excelled in middle school, and Kim got to take them to fun events at work, like Disney on Ice.

“I really loved that job,” she said.

But in late March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic closed Feld’s doors. Kim was laid off. The family’s struggles were about to deepen.

A perfect oasis, at first

For the next several years, Kim got by with full-time hours at Publix as an essential worker. Nicholas, by then in high school, got a part-time job there, too.

Then in 2022, Kim’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Used to being independent and running errands in her own van, Carolyn now had to rely on Kim.

Kim took time off work to bring her to treatments, finding herself switching roles and becoming her mother’s rock.

“I had to be that way for her and encourage her,” Kim said. “It was very hard watching her go through that.”

Kim cut off her own long hair in solidarity when chemotherapy caused her mom’s to fall out.

About a year ago Carolyn went into remission and Kim obtained an office manager job with the Boys and Girls Club of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, while still holding down her part-time Publix job.

But with the ongoing housing crisis in Sarasota and Manatee counties, their family budget was more precarious than ever. Rent on their Lakewood Ranch apartment continued to climb, hitting $2,700 a month, up from $1,400 in less than 10 years.

That’s when Kim decided something had to give – and she found the smaller but cheaper two-bedroom unit in Bradenton on the Manatee River, for $2,000 a month.

But now the commute to Publix was too much. Kim stayed on at Boys & Girls Club, but both she and her son had to let their part-time jobs go.

Then this summer, between car repairs and the loss of extra income from Publix, Kim fell behind on the bills.

Still, one thing gave her consolation: their apartment. After everything her mom had been through, their home, though cramped, offered peaceful views and an outdoor space for Carolyn to grow her plants.

“It was perfect for her,” Kim said of her mom. “She would sit on the porch and look at the water and sunsets. It was amazing.”

Then in September, as Hurricane Helene approached the Florida coast, Kim, an Alabama native, worried most about tornadoes. The last thing she thought about was the river.

Grateful

As storm surge flooded the parking lot, Kim ushered her mom and kids back to the safety of their apartment while residents rallied to push neighbors’ cars to dry land.

“I saw so many people coming together, helping each other,” she said.

Meanwhile, on the back of the building, river water reached her porch and the sliding glass door – then stopped, before it receded.

In the morning, after the waters went down, Kim saw that both vehicles had been inundated up to their engines – their parts soon shot by the brackish flood waters.

Kim’s chief concern: how was she going to get to work? The commute was an hour to an hour and a half one way. Her insurance paid off their loans. But it did not cover car rentals.

Soon she was spending $200 a week to rent a tiny 2023 Mitsubishi Mirage.

While FEMA helped cover expenses from the loss of groceries due to storm-related power outages, Kim was on her own for everything else. She fell further behind, with nothing left to cover rent.

“It was just one thing after another,” she said. “I had no idea what I was going to do. I had no options.”

At Boys & Girls Club, top managers swooped in to check on employees.

“You see what they do with the children and community, then you see what they do with something like this,” Kim said of the organization's response after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. “It’s truly a family here."

The feeling was mutual about Kim, said Dawn Page, the nonprofit’s vice president of operations.

“She has overcome so much, but through all of that, she has always had this most amazing outlook on life,” Page said.

As Kim scoured resources for help – worried about keeping a roof over her family’s head – Page let her know about Season of Sharing. It was local; it was trusted; and it was fast.

In late October, Season of Sharing covered that month’s $2,000 rent as well as $400 in back electric bills.

“Overall the program is such a lifeline for families,” Page said of Season of Sharing. “It seems that when it rains it pours for some folks, and sometimes all they need is that umbrella to help them until they are back on board in their life.”

The assistance put Kim back on track, though the family budget remains tight.

Into November, Kim was following up on leads for a used car to replace the rental.

Eventually, she hopes to have a second vehicle again for the household – for her independent mom, now 76, as well as for Ashley Grace, now 18 and a high school senior, and 19-year-old Nicholas, a recent graduate who commutes with her daily to his Sarasota insurance office job. Nicholas is also seeking an auto mechanic apprenticeship.

For the moment, Kim, now 55, says a positive attitude has helped her stay motivated through these tough times.

“I have a lot of faith, and I’ve been fortunate to have good people come into my life,” she said. That includes residents who contributed to Season of Sharing, she added, neighbors she’ll likely never meet.

“I’m so grateful,” she said. “I would like people to know that, to know how grateful I am.”

But one of the biggest things that keeps Kim going is that ethic long ago instilled in her by her mom: to get up every morning and get back to her job.

“We just work,” she said, “and do what we have to do.”

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Read the story as it originally appears on the Herald-Tribune.