On November 14th, a family of ten in Savannah lost their home & possessions in a fire. The plight of this family impacted me greatly. Gosh, can you imagine this happening to you or someone you know well? Times are hard enough as it is and something like this happening a week before Thanksgiving day and Christmas time is just brutal. I feel so sad for this family. I thought, what can we do to help this family out? I could comfortably give them $50, $100 but that’s about it. How far would that take them? Not very since the parents have 8 children.
So, on Friday, November 24th I responded to a post that WSAV reporter Tuquyen Mach made on her Facebook page about this family. I asked what I could do to help them out. Ms. Mach quickly responded that the family was in need of food and clothing. She also provided a phone number for the family.
On Saturday, November 25th, I called the phone number and a lady answered the phone. I told her who I was and that I would like to help out in whatever way I could. This lady, Mrs. Tyson, said that they could really use some food and clothes. I asked her the sizes of clothes and the gender and she gave me a list. I told her I would do whatever I could to help out and she was very thankful.
That Saturday evening as I hung out with my family roasting marshmallows & making s’mores in the backyard I thought about the Tyson family again and my heart began to heart for them. I asked God what I could do to help them out and minutes later the idea of getting local runners involved in a race to raise money for this family in need came to mind. I thought about it some that night and on Sunday morning after running the Talmadge Bridge with a couple of friends I presented the idea of getting family and friends to sponsor their “runners” for an upcoming race and donating that money to the Tyson family before Christmas. The two friends that were with me, Marc Bigbie and Sarah Bland, liked the idea and we talked about it for awhile. It soon became clear that the race to shoot for should be the Reindeer 8k Run on Saturday, December 17, 2011.
So, here’s the deal…
If you would like to be involved in this as a runner please do the following:
- register for the Reindeer 8k that’s taking place on Saturday, December 17, 2011.
- download the runner sponsor form: <SponsorForm> (you may have to right-click & choose “save link as” to download).
- please contact family and friends and ask them to sponsor you for the upcoming Reindeer 8k race. Please remember that any amount is better than nothing. These are tight times for many. So, if you can get lots of people to make small donations it will add up fast and will not be such a burden on one person or family.
- After the race hit your family and friends for the pledges they made to you and get a money order for the total that you collected. Please email me the amount of money you collected and I’ll contact WSAV to see if we can have all of the money handed to the Tyson family at one time while televised. Let’s have the money ready to be given to the family by December 22nd. You can make the money order out to “Mr. & Mrs. Tyson”. Please hold onto the money order until I speak with my contact at WSAV.
- If you do not mind, I will post your name and the amount you collected along with your sponsors on this website. If you prefer not to be noted please let me know & I will not post your name. I figured having each runner solicit family and friends will make this process a bit more transparent than asking people to send the money to some back account that they have no idea is legit or not.
- If you would rather donate food and clothing rather than money then please look at the list below of the Tyson children ages and sizes. The family said they needed food and clothes. They have little children, – so, perhaps donate toys as well.
The ages and sizes of the children are listed:
- 1 year old boy: 2g/3g
- 3 year old boy: 5t-6t
- 8 year old boy: 6-7 pants, 5-6 shirt
- 10 year old boy: 10 pants, 7 shirt
- 12 year old girl: 17-18 pants, medium shirt
- 14 year old boy: 20 pants, large shirt
- 17 year old girl: 5-6 pants, small shirt
- 18 year old boy: 33-34 pants, extra-large shirt
I do not understand those sizes listed above. I just jotted down the sizes as Mrs. Tyson stated them to me. Hopefully, you know all about children’s sizes and stuff.
Mrs. Tyson said that the donated stuff could be sent to the following address:
Ms Wanda Ward
1902 Vassar Street
Liberty City, Ga. 31405
912-323-0348
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So, I appeal to all of you that read this blog, please help this family have a very memorable happy holiday season by taking up this cause and contacting family and friends to sponsor you as a runner for the Reindeer 8k or by donating money, clothes, food to the Tyson family directly.
If you do not feel like helping out this family, you still should consider doing this race as it is for a very worthy cause. All race proceeds go to support sexual assault victims, their families and friends and to provide prevention education for all ages.
Helping out your fellow man is our duty as God’s children and just plain good for the soul.
Do not hesitate to contact at all should you have any questions. Either leave a comment at the bottom of this blog or email me at: dlh14255@gmail.com.
Many, many thanks for all.
All the very best to you and yours.
Happy Holidays!
peace,
dh
12/05/2011
Link to wsav article about this family’s plight: Family of 10 Trying to Start Over After House Fire
[...] friend, Dan, decided he had to do something to help this family. Out of work, no home and so many children, [...]
[...] case you did not read my prior blog entry, I’m doing a fundraising run for the Tyson family that lost everything on November 14 2011 [...]