I want to start a donation... - but how?

MyBabeMaddie wrote: Can you guys think of any ideas to help me get this started? I want to start a donation fund for my step - family. I want to go around to businesses and see if they will donate a gift card, clothes, food - I want to raise awareness in the township and start a donation - If they don't want to donate money I want them to know that clothes, shoes, underware, anything will be good - They only have the clothes they were wearing yesterday - Thats it.

Do you guys have any ideas how to organize this besides going from door to door - If that's what it takes I will do it but I'm sure there are more convenient/better methods to this.

gr33n3y3z replied: Go through their church or a church,rec department something like that

lovemy2 replied: Can't they get help from the American Red Cross until insurance issues start getting taken care of?

I would try the local radio stations too....see if they will let you get the word out....

MyBabeMaddie replied:
Well the insurance company wrote them a small check yesterday just to go and get clothes to wear for a day, toothbrushes... But I want to do more, can you imagine losing every single thing you own? Lauren is a senior in high school, can you imagine going to school wearing the same 2 things everyday? Maybe there are people who are poor and faced with that but she doesn't need the stress of having to wear the same thing every day when she lost her dogs, house, everything she has known her entire life.

coasterqueen replied: I'm suprised Red Cross isn't helping them, if they aren't.

I can understand your desire to help them, and I think that's great and shows true compassion for others.

I would try local radio stations, writing a letter to the editor, you could also have some sort of benefit to raise money. Our friends, who's brother needed a heart transplant and money to fund the thing, they had a fundraiser at the school and also at a local place sort of like Chuck E Cheese with an auction, etc to raise money.

julesmom replied: If they live in a small town, call the local paper and see if they'll put something in there about the family and donations are requested.

MyBabeMaddie replied:
Thats a good idea - How do you go about starting a fund raiser like that? See the thing is, like I said in my post yesterday - He is the Fire Chief - His son is in the department, both of my brothers are volunteers, I would try and go through them, But I don't want people to start saying that it is a scam to raise money KWIM?

Like "Come to the fire station to help raise money for our Chief" - If you didn't know anything about what happened would you be skeptical?

MyBabeMaddie replied: I also wanted to add, I can't remember which one but either the Red Cross, or Salvation Army was there. One of the other firemen told me that usually they will give a $500 gift card to K-Mart to the family but they never did that yesterday.

A&A'smommy replied: You could also go to your local bank and set up an account in their name and put it in the newspaper, you can also go to a few businesses and ask them if you can put a box in their for donations most businesses wont mind and are more than happy to help.

lisar replied:
That is what I was going to suggest.

Crystalina replied: I'm not sure what happened. I'm gathering from the posts that someone lost their house to a fire? Don't be afraid to tell the story. If it was a fire surely it made the news. Get on the radio and say this is what happened and we're selling hot dogs at such and such place, we have an account set up at this bank, we're going to be accepting clothing and donations at the firehouse on this day. You'd be amazed at how many people will help.

I feel awful for this family. I hope they can get back on their feet soon.

grapfruit replied: I think it would also be beneficial to talk to the tv news to see if they'll let you (or him or somebody) EXPLAIN what caused the fire. It sounds like your concern is people not believing, well make them believe! Tell your community what you told us. People will feel empathy and compassion.

And their insurance company should put them up some place (called "Loss of Use" and help them out more. Tell them they need more money. There should be at LEAST 50% of whatever the dwelling cost was for personal property (we do 75%). He needs to talk to the adjustor and see if they can help more.

MoonMama replied: I would set up a bank account where people could donate to, and also see if some business close by (grocery store, gas station, maybe even the bank, etc). Would be willing to a designated place for people to donate other items. gift cards, clothes, canned goods etc for those that what do go that route. Then go to the media (radio stations, news/TV, local papers....) and explain what happened and ask for help for them. Good luck hun your such a wonderful person for taking this on. Continued P&PTs.

MyBabeMaddie replied: Sorry if there was confusion about this post... Here is the original post I made...

http://forums.parentingclub.com/index.php?...topic=73573&hl=

Celestrina replied: Go to local restaurants (especially diners) and see if they will put something next to the register for donations. I see that type of thing all the time.

Kentuckychick replied:
I'm so sorry to hear about the fire and my prayers are with your step family!

I know here in our community and county when something like this occurs 99% of the time donations are asked for. I know that I rarely get a chance to make a donation, but that most of the time when it pops up the families get what they need because people who know the family or who know people who know the family often step up to offer support. I think the best route to go would be through the local paper, local news and through like you suggested the fire station. And it shouldn't matter that people don't know what happened, as soon as they are clued in to the fact that their fire chief lost his home to a fire I would bet that people would step up to help.

I think a lot of people would be surprised what can happen... I know several months back a family here lost their home to a fire and an elderly woman from their neighborhood approached them that very night and offered them her home for the next 6 months rent free. It wasn't a large home and she said even apologized for the lack of some luxuries but she would be leaving with family to go out of the state and didn't want to leave the home alone. The family graciously accepted the offer and they've had several updates on them and how they are building a new home and will be giving back to the community with some of the donations they've recieved.

I wouldn't hesitate at all to ask for help in that situation.

Again, my prayers are with them!

Boys r us replied: I haven't read all of the other responses, but I would say for people to take you seriously, it would help to have an established bank account in the family's name, "The Smith Family Disaster Assistance Fund". I would put jars with a family photo on it in the local convenience stores, contact radio stations, tv news stations etc etc..and for the radio and tv clips ran, they could offer the name of the bank and the account name to the public to make donations.

Crystalina replied:
Oh heck yeah. Who wouldn't want to help him? They just have to know where and when to donate.

Best of luck and keep us posted!

MommyToAshley replied:
I agree -- you've already had a lot of great suggestions such as the bank account, talking to businesses and churches, and the media. It will be a lot of leg work on your end, but what a kind and compassionate thing for you to do. I'm sorry this happened.

MyBabeMaddie replied: So far today we (other firefighters in the department, my mom and me) Opened a fund at a Bank in their name... We have gone to Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart, Kohls, TGI Fridays a couple more I can't think of at the moment. We have gotten gift cards to most places (Bed Bath and Beyond is where Lauren (my step-sister) is working so they said they are going to contact the district manager to try and go above and beyond what they would normally do.).... One of the firefighters wives works for a local newspaper and she is going to write an article... The Junior firemen (my brother and his friends) are going to start a boot drive around the High school. There is such amazing generosity just from the fire department alone - It really is a brotherhood.

On another note, the next door neighbor called my mom this morning just to say how sorry she is and to say she's here to help if we need anything. Yesterday she went over when she started seeing smoke and broke into the kitchen and heard the dogs barking upstairs she said she called for them but the smoke was so thick and heavy she couldn't even get in the door. Poor dogs A man driving by at the time actually went in the house even with the black smoke trying to save the dogs but he couldn't see and by the time he went in the dogs weren't barking anymore.