15th Annual
Hug Detroit Day
Sunday, August 23, 2026
1:00 - 9:00 PM EST
OUR MISSION
One Community * One Love * One Detroit.
Our mission is to strengthen Detroit through community partnerships, youth development, arts and culture, family engagement, education, and neighborhood outreach.
HUG Detroit Day started in August of 2013. It is the vision of Sky Covington and Sheila Everette-Hale who shared their desire and passion to take one day out of the year to literally HUG Detroit and its people. We want to show appreciation for the inspiring accomplishments of this great city and the people therein … to thank those who stayed here through the storm and those who came to help us rise above and excel as we create a New Detroit and new ways of being and doing things together.
HUG Detroit Day promotes community..."When we can all look at one another, and see ourselves then the good that I may want for myself, I will want for you also, regardless of age, gender, social status, culture, race or religion. Together we can rise up out of any situation, and create the city we desire and deserve to live in”, says Sheila Everett-Hale. Sky Covington’s concept, “Let’s get back to the days of hugs and handshakes,” comes from a place and time when people made an effort to give a hug or handshake, just out of love and respect for their neighbor or friend.
Nicole Freeman
aka Sky Covington (Nikki-O)
Founder of Hug Detroit Day
(Hug Detroit Community Service)
Founder of Hug Detroit Day (Hug Detroit Community Service), The Preservation of Jazz, Healing Song Foundation and CEO of Unlimited Sky Production, an entertainment production. Native Detroiter and 12 time Detroit Music Award Recipient for "Outstanding Jazz Vocalist" Nicole "Sky Covington" Freeman is a singer/songwriter, poet producer & playwrite. Sky Covington has a rich, elegant tone and an easy vibrato - think Billie Holiday, as well as Abbey Lincoln and Sarah Vaughan - Covington's best noted for her rendition of the Billie Holiday Tribute for 20 years. This sultry chanteuse makes every note seem personal, and her phrasing is unique, and deep. Sky Covington is a traditional jazz vocalist of yester-year. Also, known for neo-soul and electronic music, neo soul and improve. Sky Covington is a true entertainer.
Co-Founder of Hug Detroit Day, Sheila Everette-Hale, is the CEO and Educational Director of Everette’s Natural Beauty School/Salon. She started her business in Detroit, MI, in 1978, migrating her entire family from San Diego, CA to Detroit. Sheila was instrumental in creating a new license for the Natural Hair Culturist in the state of Michigan. The license was signed into law by Gov. Engler in 1997, and in the year 2000, she opened the first 400 hour Natural Hair Care School worldwide. In 2008 Sheila created the first online Natural Hair Care Webinar, teaching both theory and practical techniques.
In 2014 Sheila founded Linking Everyday Extraordinary People (LEEP), a community-oriented business incubation and collaboration project dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship worldwide. The mission is “to create the space and opportunities for people to express and experience their full self-expression (passion) … and get paid.” It is the ‘Birthing Place’ … a place where visions and dreams are born, nurtured, developed and duplicated. She is the “Passion Gatekeeper”… helps people discover what their passions are and how to serve the world by sharing it.
Sheila Everette-Hale
Co-Founder
Non-Profit Organization
Date: August 3, 2025
Welcome to the Hug Detroit Community Collective Corporation!
RE: A New Chapter of Service, Art, and Community
Dear Family:
It brings me overwhelming joy and deep gratitude to officially welcome you to the Hug Detroit Community Collective Corporation—our newly established nonprofit that was born from years of dedication, passion, and love for the city of Detroit and its people.
What started as a vision—to hug Detroit with our hearts, our gifts, and our actions—has now become a structured, powerful movement. This new chapter is more than just paperwork or process. It is the divine unfolding of what we have all helped build together. Every moment of service, every song, every meal, every show, every backpack, every handshake, and every hug has brought us here.
I want to congratulate each and every one of you—our board members, our artists, our supporters, our family—for being a part of this incredible milestone. Your belief, your presence, and your consistency have made Hug Detroit not only a movement, but now, a foundation that will live on to serve generations.
As we enter this next phase, the Hug Detroit Community Collective will continue to be rooted in love, culture, and connection. We will serve through music, healing, outreach, mentorship, education, and creation. We are here to be a bridge for our people—honoring our past, lifting our present, and securing our future.
Our mission is simple, yet powerful:
> “To restore community through acts of love, cultural expression, service, and celebration. We are committed to uplifting our neighborhoods by creating spaces of healing, creativity, unity, and mutual support—one hug, one handshake, and one helping hand at a time.”
Thank you for being part of this sacred mission. Thank you for walking this walk with me. I could not have done this without each of you. Let’s continue to build with intention, pour into one another, and do the work—together.
With love and deepest appreciation,
Nicole Covington Freeman
Founder, Hug Detroit Community Collective Inc.
248-383-3385 | hugdetroitpeople@gmail.com
It's Official!!!
Thank you, Council President Brenda Jones and the entire Detroit City Council for recognizing and honoring the 4th Sunday in August as HUG Detroit Day indefinitely. HUG Detroit Day is officially a day set aside each year to celebrate Detroit and it's great people.
Respectfully, Nicole Freeman & Sheila Everette-Hale
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Woodbridge Pub
The Preservation of Jazz
Gwen Foxx Entertainment
City of Artz
Soul Equestrian