Neighbor's House Burned Down.....Need Advice!

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Well, it was actually my in-laws’ neighbor’s house about 20-30 minutes away from us. Their house burned to the ground in a pile of ashes 😦

First of all, could everyone please say a prayer for that family? We’re not even sure at this point if anyone was hurt or not. There was no local news about it, so I’m guessing they are all OK–maybe they were out when the fire happened. My in-laws didn’t really know the family (they live a few houses down). What a difficult Christmas this family is going to have this year!

Secondly, does anyone have any suggestions as to how we could go about organizing donations from the other neighbors? I would love to just go door to door with my DH and his siblings on the weekend and see if any of the people in their neighborhood want to donate something. But I think this may not be the best way to go about it. DH thought maybe we could organize a “drop off” place where people can go to make donations. We just really want to help them, but we feel very limited since we don’t know the family personally or many of the families on that street.

Any ideas?
 
don’t have much time but wanted to quickly say that around here that we could go to our local bank and they would set up an account that would accept donations from the public for the family…
 
Feanaro_s_Wife said:
don’t have much time but wanted to quickly say that around here that we could go to our local bank and they would set up an account that would accept donations from the public for the family…
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that is a great idea.
I will pray for the family.
The other thing is you could set up a drop off point where people can donate household goods like towels, blankets, kitchen utensils etc and when you got it all give it to the family. Maybe ask first what they need the most.
God love you for caring!
 
Yes… on the suggestions… Contact the people whose house burned and ask what sizes everybody is and what they need… type up a list and make copies. Take one to dh’s employer and ask to post it in the break room, take one to church, one to your work (if you work outside the home) and one to a local Walmart or department store. Ask anyone with minivans, or pick up trucks to help and deliver it to where they are staying or ask you to deliver to. Most likely the things they will need are plates, pots and pans, bedding, towels etc… more than anything else. If they have kids find out the ages and post that too. Give people a week to donate and pick up donations. Ask for Christmas presents too… people will respond.
 
I will pray from them. Can you find out also what church they go to? There may be someone there coordinating an effort that you can be part of. When a very good friend’s brother’s house burned, we collected houshold items and clothes at our church and she and other friends drove them to where the brother’s family was staying. An account at a bank is also a great idea!
 
In our next town over, there was a family that was burned out. There is going to be a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for them this week. They will have cash to put toward what they need most.
 
When I was in high school ( aprivate school with a strict dresscode) we would have dress down days to raise money for causes like this. People could donate anything $1 or up to dress down. Did any of their children attend a school with a dress code?
 
May also be a way to get some emergency angels on the “angel tree” in your church. If Fr. explains to the congregation what is needed, people will help. People always help when there is a true and substantial need.
 
Keep in mind that (hopefully) their homeowners insurance should cover a lot of the stuff mentioned here. Most times they will put them up in temporary housing and give them what ever they need to live until their house is repaired or re-built. Hopefully they were fully covered.

You may want to consider asking them before organizing anything - giving them a bunch of stuff when they have no where to put it would not be helping.

We tried to do this very same thing with some Katrina victims who ended up in our area and they just could not accept donations of “stuff” because they where staying in temp housing and had no where to put it.

God bless you for even thinking of them - will keep them in my prayers.

~Liza
 
Good point, Lizaanne! 🙂 I really need to talk to my MIL and see if we can get in touch with this family, their church, or someone!
 
When our neighbors house burnt, I took care of their child so that they could sift through the stuff and make arrangements. We also have gathered people together to send hot meals once they were settled into another location. A free storage unit would be helpful.
 
CatholicSam,

Have you been able to speak with or find out about the family (ie. insurance, specific needs, demographics of family like number of kids and ages, etc)?

They will be in my prayers as well as your family so that the HS will guide you all in how to best share God’s gifts.
 
My thought would be, after reading a PP’s comment about Katrina victims, would be home-cooked meals for them. I’m betting no one in the family feels like cooking anything right now, and are probably in quite a bit of shock. Plus, it’s not ‘stuff’ they have to find somewhere to keep, but they can just go ahead and eat it. 😛
 
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