As most of you have heard my parents have had a house fire on Thursday evening. Nobody was hurt and my parents were not home.

The fire started in the kitchen as a grease fire, ended up causing well over $200,000 worth of damage. There was a window upstairs open so the fire ripped through the entire house. The water and smoke damage alone was devastating. They had to cut open the roof and doused the fire from upstairs so all that water just seeped down through the house bringing insulation and drywall down through the whole top floor and attic. The remediation process alone will take months and the rebuild 8- 12 months.

My parents are in their 70's and have devoted there whole life to there church. community and volunteer work. They adopted both my brother and I. They raised us well and now it is my turn to give back to them.

My parents have volunteered at Loads of Love for 20 plus years. They are an organization in Chatham that takes donations and redistributes them to people in the community who are in need. They have helped countless fire victims and abuse victims. They would give the shirt of their backs to anyone in need and would never hesitate to feed anyone. They would never see anyone on the streets and often would let my brother's friends stay when it was cold. They give so much to the community that I thought we could come together as a community and help them.

We all know that insurance is not going to cover the complete lost. We were unable to salvage anything from the house other than the safety deposit box. There is no way any amount of insurance is going to fix this situation or replace the last 35 years in that house.

My parents are at the trailer until the end of September. I am hoping to find them an apartment and get them set up for October 1st.

We all know that insurance is great and they had great insurance. We also know we are in the middle of a huge housing crisis and rentals are few and far between and nothing is affordable anymore for seniors on a limited pension.

However, I want to take the burden off of them and get them set up in a one bedroom apartment so they can be safe and can manage the upkeep unlike the house and not have to worry about when insurance is going to pay out or what they are going to get from insurance. I want to give them a few months in rent so that they can breathe and take some of the burden off of them.

I want my Dad to have peace of mind that he can finally enjoy his retirement and live in a stable clean environment. They looked after my brother who has legit issues with addiction and mental health all his life. They can no longer do this and need a place of their own.

Thank you all, we appreciate any little bit we can raise for them.