Help Lucy & Her Family Rebuild After Hurricane Helene

Dear friends, family, & community,

My friend and former colleague Lucy Turek is a light and inspiration to everyone she meets. I was fortunate to meet and work with her during my time at the Jewish Disaster Response Corps rebuilding homes in New York, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas after natural disasters left homeowners reeling, in need of support.

Lucy and her mom Donna came to volunteer at these rebuilds with gigantic amounts of empathy, love, and positivity. I can still picture Lucy's smiling face driving our passenger van around with college students in Arkansas, making us all laugh, and hyping us up for our long and sometimes grueling days of construction and cleanup work.

During that time, Lucy shared stories about serving as a Jewish woman in the US Marine Corps, and supporting differently-abled youth in her hometown of Chicago to feel proud of who they were. Lucy applies her deep service values to everything she does: whether it's counseling people through addiction and grief, mentoring middle schoolers, taking care of her family including two young daughters, or wielding a hammer to help an underinsured homeowner rebuild after disaster.

(Lucy & me, exploring during the 'Points of Light" conference on building communities of service in Houston Texas, 2015)

Because Lucy is so devoted to serving others, it was hard for her to ask for help. Please read her heartfelt story below and consider reaching deep to help her and her family get back on their feet, for the long road ahead. I have ultimate faith that anything we support her with now will get paid forward 100-fold because of the way Lucy lives her life: in service to others.

With gratitude,

Sammy Kanofsky (former Program Director at JDRC)

on behalf of Lucy & the Turek Family

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Shana Tova and thank you for taking a moment to read my story, during this sacred time of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. My name is Lucy Turek. I am a proud Jewish woman, mother of two young daughters, and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. After my service, I dedicated myself to disaster recovery with the Jewish Disaster Response Corps (JDRC), stepping into a role not many women take on. Now, after years of helping communities in need, my family and I find ourselves needing the very support we once provided.

This Rosh Hashana is particularly poignant for us. We lost our home—built in 2017 and filled with love and laughter—when Hurricane Helene flooded Indian Rocks Beach, causing a devastating fire that destroyed everything. To make matters even more challenging, my entire family followed us in pursuit of our dream to move to Florida, and my mother also lost her home here. It’s a double loss that weighs heavily on our hearts. The cost of rebuilding an entire house from the ground up is overwhelming, especially after the flood caused over four feet of water damage in my mother’s home, necessitating the replacement of every appliance, electrical outlet, and even the AC unit. As we reflect on renewal during this time of new beginnings, my family is forced to start over in ways we never imagined.

We need your help. With two small children, a French Bulldog, and a Boxer, we’re facing immediate challenges and the emotional toll of losing our homes. It’s incredibly difficult to ask for help, but we now need the community’s support to get back on our feet.

Here are some of our most urgent needs:

- Clothing and shoes for our daughters, ages 3 and 6 (sizes 3/4T and 6/7T)

- Furniture and household essentials for our temporary living space

- Kitchenware and daily necessities to restart basic routines

- Food, diapers, and toiletries for our girls

- Supplies for our dogs

- School supplies so our daughters can continue learning during this transition

We’ve launched this GoFundMe to raise the funds needed to meet these immediate needs and begin the long process of rebuilding. Any contribution, big or small, will make a difference and help us rebuild not just our house but our home.

In this season of Rosh Hashana, we reflect on the values of strength, courage, and tzedakah (charity). I’ve lived these values in service to others, especially through disaster response, a unique role for a woman like myself. Now, I humbly ask for your kindness and generosity to support my family as we navigate this difficult time.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for your support, love, and prayers. May this New Year bring blessings, peace, and renewal for all.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Lucy Turek and Family