MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) -- Charmaine Handy has searched for her lost family for decades and on Saturday, after 47 years apart, she was reunited with her mother Jessie Thurmond.

“Just feel blessed to have my daughter back in my life,” said Jessie Thurmond, who left her daughter in her mother’s custody years ago due to troubling times. “Very emotional.”

Handy was then removed from her grandmother’s care at the age of three and put in the foster system. Handy said she’s searched for her family for years, but never could find them because of name changes.

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) -- The effort to provide college scholarship money to students in Muskegon County has reached a significant milestone.

Since its launch in October, the Muskegon Area Promise fundraising effort has received support from several donors.

At the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce Friday afternoon, organizers announced those donations have passed the $1 million mark. A recent $100,000 donation from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County pushed the fund past that point.

The Muskegon Area Promise is a scholarship program modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise. It provides money for tuition, book costs, and fees, up to $4,000.

For now, it's for graduates of Muskegon, Muskegon Heights, and Holton high schools. It will be expanded countywide in 2017.

MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM) -- The City of Muskegon is taking over an apartment project from a private developer after the work stalled for several years.

If successful, the development would create more housing options in the heart of downtown.

The City is already in a development agreement with Allen Edwin Homes to build Midtown Square. The nine single family homes are four blocks from downtown.

On Wednesday, city leaders were showing off their new housing project that will tower over Western Avenue.

"You have never seen anything like this," said Mohammed Al-Shatel, City of Muskegon Director of Public Works.