In the early morning hours of Saturday, March 7, 2020, the lives of both my granddaughter, Madelyn (almost 8 years old), and her mother, Teresa, were changed forever.  An accidental fire ravaged the entire apartment they called home.  Everything in it is gone. Nothing is left.  Luckily, Madelyn had gone to her father's (my son's) place just hours before for the weekend.  The fire quickly traveled from the kitchen down the hallway towards the two bedrooms, which would've closed off any chance of Madelyn  escaping from her room  had she been there sleeping in their second floor apartment. Teresa was asleep on the couch in the living room and luckily was awoken by the smoke detector (I had just changed the batteries in it about 2 weeks prior!).  Teresa was able to get out the front door and she woke up the neighbor next door who called  911 and they then proceeded to wake the other neighbors in their building to evacuate their own homes.  Had Teresa been in her bed at the time, she also would have been trapped.  She got out with the clothes she had on, no socks or shoes, & her laptop because it was sitting right next to her on the couch.  Thank God she made it out when she did because it was literally seconds after she got out door that the fire then spread to the living room. 

So now it's time for them to start rebuilding their lives from scratch.  Unfortunately, my granddaughter will never again see her Victorian doll house, her art or art supplies, toys, stuffed animals, clothes, musical instruments, books, all of her recent Christmas gifts,  or her beloved Beta fish she named BlackJack...it's all gone.  Both Teresa and Madelyn are very artistic and talented and both have a love for music, art and movies.  Madelyn loved using her tablet to make her own videos of herself singing or creating her own "TV shows".  She had an abundance of art supplies and has dreams of becoming an artist some day.  Teresa works full-time as a caregiver.  Her rent at the apartment was paid up through the end of March.  Luckily, she had renter's insurance.  The insurance company placed them into an extended stay hotel temporarily and they are still waiting to hear back from the Red Cross.  They need to find a new home now.. But that is going to take money that Teresa doesn't have (i.e., first & last month's rent, security deposit, etc.).  It will take some time for the insurance companies involved to work things out. 

In addition, Madelyn's 8th birthday is on April 13.  Hopefully, they will be in a permanent home by then.  Regardless, we want to make this particular  birthday for her extra special!  She is an amazing, smart, talented little girl who has literally had the rug pulled out from under her, so to speak.  It would be wonderful if we could at least replace some of her toys, books and art supplies for her birthday

Any assistance is very much appreciated!  Thank you!

P.S.   Please check the batteries in your smoke detectors often and be sure to have a plan in place in case a fire starts in your home.  We never thought anything like this would happen to anyone in our family.  We definitely don't want it to happen to anyone else!