Family House Fire Recovery Fund

This fire WILL NOT consume their hope.       On May 23rd, Jodi Rossiter, an elementary school substitute teacher at St. John Bosco, got a call that her home was on fire and one of her dogs was missing. Thankfully, that was the worst of the news. Her son, 16-year-old Dante Rossiter had already left for school, Toby (their 6-year-old rescue) had been pulled out of the burning house, the St. John's Fire Department soon had the fire contained and then extinguished (thank you SJFD!!! We love you and can't thank you enough for the amazing work you do every day!) and then their runaway doggo - 1-year-old Princess - was found shortly after.   You probably remember the Southside Road fire. Here’s Fred Hutton’s coverage of it.  So, anyway, THANK GOD everything was FINE! She had the TD Gold Insurance package after all....   Except it turns out it wasn't fine. Let me introduce myself; my name is Jessica Tobin and I'm Jodi's big sister (cousin actually - but, semantics!), my whole life I have never let anyone mess with my Jodi, and my Jodi just called me crying -  HER INSURANCE COMPANY IS CLAIMING SHE MUST PAY $19,930.79 BEFORE THEY WILL "RESTORE IT TO ITS ORIGINAL CONDITION"  AS IS STATED IN HER INSURANCE POLICY.!!!!! THAT'S TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS. Sounds ludicrous right? IT IS.  This is not right. And it all comes down to a loophole in the policy. When she bought her home six years ago it was inspected and it met all the required safety codes and standards, plus, her basement apartment was completely renovated just last year due to a flood... but in the past year, the city updated codes and those upgrades aren't included. And get this... for an additional $72 dollars A YEAR, they would have been.  Here's the quote detailing what she has to pay before they restore her home: (Highlighted numbers are the ones they won't cover). Well, I don't know how many of you have $20 grand laying about, but Jodi is a single mother who put herself through school and is currently paying off student loans and a mortgage and the bank won't let her borrow off it or lend her any more (sorry for spilling your financials to the world Jode... love you!). So, essentially, there's no way to pay it, which means in addition to losing all of their belongings and all the little memories associated with them, they're also losing their home. Their GOLD PACKAGE insured, "insured in case of fire" home. In fact, please do yourself a favour and call your insurance company and make sure you have the By-Law and Code Insurance for an additional $72 dollars a year so this doesn't happen to you too (trust me, they won't warn you in advance). So here's where I plead for your help. Jodi and Dante are amazing humans. Truly. They are both so kind and caring - Jodi teaches children because she wants to make a difference!!! She is an animal lover who has fostered many animals over the years, and she's the type of person who just wants to make the world a better place. And Dante is a good kid. He's a cadet and a camp counsellor, and his best friend is his Nana. For real. He doesn't deserve this. Actually, he's an amazing kid - he's a teenager and I can still testify to his awesomeness! (and that definitely deserves bonus points!!!).   We need your help! Please. Pretty please. Pretty please with free wifi and snacks and unlimited internet on top. If you can donate anything at all, our whole family would be beyond thankful. Anything! Really!. 50 cents! a dollar! Anything at all. But if you can't donate (that's okay too!), you can help by passing along this message to your friends and family. Even if it's just to warn them to make sure this doesn't happen to them. Thanks for taking the time to read this campaign. Even just reading it at all is a kindness! (Because it's so long!)  We appreciate you, and can't say enough kind words ❤ Thank you again. Jessica Tobin, Jodi and Dante Rossiter, and the rest of our incredibly thankful family.