Help Kuzmans rebuild their lives after house fire

They were simply cooking dinner on New Year’s Day, a time for family and for celebration. A smoke detector went off, and Christine felt a pang of annoyance because she hadn’t burnt anything. A quick investigation led them to open the garage door – to find an inferno. Thank goodness Christine, Paul, little Matthew, and Christine’s dad all managed to get outside safely and to call 911.

Despite four fire departments responding, the fierce night wind plus all the cardboard in the garage for their upcoming move ensured the damage was swift: the garage and two bedrooms (Matthew’s and Christine’s dad’s) were completely destroyed, and the rest of the house suffered irreparable fire and smoke damage. The cause remains undetermined, and the family is currently staying at Paul’s mom’s.

Thus the Kuzman family has had to start the new year by rebuilding their lives. Here, a brave, matter-of-fact Matthew speaks about being scared and losing his beloved toys and Legos:

All this, coming right on the heels of the death of Christine’s mother and aunt last September as well as her father moving in with them in November. They are planning to close on a new home in Cutchogue on January 24, but they don’t know when they’ll be able to move into it.

This family has been through so, so much--and they are such kind, generous people.

Please help us to help them. This fundraiser will be used by the Kuzmans for several purposes:

1) Purchase items for Matthew: his bedroom (with all his new Christmas toys!) burned, so early funding will help replace some of those items to help him cope with this transition.

2) Replace immediate necessities for the entire family including clothing, shoes/boots, winter coats, etc.

3) Replace basic necessities for a home, including furniture and essentials for kitchen, bath, living room, bedrooms, laundry, garage.

4) Ease the burden of having two mortgages/taxes until the Kuzmans are able to gut and renovate the burned home and sell it; plus, renovations carry a cost too, of course, and the insurance money will only go so far.

We appreciate anything you can do to help our dear friends -- this wonderful family -- even if just to share this link on your social media account.