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Community aids family
after fire
By Emma Tocci
Collegian Reporter
Students,
faculty, staff and members of the administration are donating
their nickels and dimes in a coin drive to support the Terry
family, who recently lost nearly everything in a North Adams
house fire.
At 10:30 a.m., Oct. 12, the county
fire department received a call reporting the blaze that authorities
now believe was caused by defective electrical circuits. Even
though help was only minutes away, the 1890s farmhouse and almost
all of the Terrys' belongings were unsalvageable.
Members of the college and county
have given much more than just spare change. Donations
ranged from silverware to substantial monetary contributions
in response to the fire.
Deborah Terry, the mother of Kenneth
Loveless, 17; Michael, 11; Shari, 9; Brian, 9; and guardian
of orphaned granddaughter, Kassie Rose, said that the only items
saved by firefighters Sunday morning were photos and an old
family Bible.
At North Adams High School, where
she teaches 12th grade English, Hillsdale alumna Amy Geyer heard
about the tragedy from other faculty the next day. Geyer
was worried about Kenneth, one of her students, and the rest
of the family being without even a change of clothes. She asked
her sister, Kathy Connor, director of Mary Randall Preschool,
for help.
"My initial intention was
to see if my sister could give parents a flyer asking if they
had clothes to donate, clothes older siblings had outgrown,"
Geyer said.
Connor sent a notice with the
childrens' clothing sizes home to parents and posted it in on
the college-wide e-mail board.
The day after the notice was sent,
the preschool office was piled with clothes, toys, dishes and
furnishings. Connor started to receive callers who asked what
else the family needed and offered clothes for the parents,
gift certificates, cash and checks.
"We were just thinking of
clothes," Connor said. "They just had the clothes
that were on their backs, but this has been above and beyond
our expectations. I just can't tell you how much people have
brought down here [to the preschool]…and they don't even
know these people."
The men's basketball team and
the women's volleyball team gave Charger T-shirts and sweatshirts
to the family. Keith Otterbein, head football coach, purchased
new sneakers for the children, and Saga, Inc. owner Tim Morrison
gave father James Terry passes for the family to Curtiss Dining
Hall until they are back on their feet.
"There are some people with
problems and we try to help them as best we can whenever we
can," Morrison said.
Dean of Men Aaron Petersen forwarded
the e-mail from Connor to Inter-Fraternity Council President
Noah Schellhammer asking if there was anything the fraternities
could do to help.
Originally, each house decided
to write a check to the Terrys and some of the houses planned
to purchase clothes or food as well.
"As I was working it out
and talking with other people it became a much larger effort,"
Schellhammer said.
"The fraternities do a lot
of philanthropy on campus, but this was one case where we could
unite the campus and help out this family."
The IFC chose to run a change
drive throughout the campus this week. The group is also accepting
change for the family in Moss and Delp Halls this afternoon
and outside Saga during lunch today and tomorrow.
The council hopes to present the
campus donations to the family early next week.
Deborah Terry has heard of the collection and said the family
is grateful for all the community has done, and for how immediate
the response has been.
"Everyday I get something
else; it's just so neat. I think people love to give when they
know the situation," Connor said. "They
can really empathize because it could happen to anybody."
Wendy Moore, the principal of
Jerome Elementary School in North Adams that four of the children
attend, agreed.
"They're really doing very
well," she said. "They
have a good network of support and they all pulled together
to help any way they could."
The help from all over is what
has enabled the Terry family to recover as well as they have
thus far.
Deborah Terry said that for the
time being they are just trying to live as normally as possible,
even though she and her husband sleep in the laundry room of
a two-bedroom apartment, and her son sleeps on the couch.
"The kids are doing a lot
better now," she said. "My granddaughter went back
to school the next day, and [later] she'd just come home, she
jumped onto the bed at the motel, grabbed a teddy bear and a
coloring book from the Red Cross, as happy as could be."
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Emma Tocci/Collegian
The fire at the Terry
residence was caused by defective electrical currents. The
family of seven lost nearly everything in the Oct. 12 blaze.
Emma Tocci/Collegian
Five children, ages 9
to 17, live in the Terry household.
Emma Tocci/Collegian
Sharon Pelletier gives
change to Dan Greene (L), Sigma Chi, and Patrick McCarthy,
Delta Sigma Phi. The IFC will be collecting change through
the end of the week.
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