PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As the families involved in Wednesday’s deadly fire in Fairmount begin to wrap their heads around the tragedy, an area organization is leading the effort to raise money.
Children First in Philadelphia has been leading the effort, and donations have been pouring in from across the country. The organization focuses on improving the lives of children by advocating for quality health care, child care, public education and family stability.
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It has raised money for advocacy, but up until this point, it has never raised money to help individual families.
But after this fatal fire, which killed 12 people, including eight children, Executive Director Donna Cooper said they felt the immediate need to step up.
“Obviously the scale of this crisis and the horrible nature of it, and the fact that eight children died, moved us to want to do something,” she said. “We probably thought we would be lucky if we raised $2,000, $3,000, but as of 9 Thursday morning, we were over $30,000.”
About 500 people from across the country have contributed.
“People are doing what they can, and that’s inspiring to me because it really speaks to the fact that there’s an extraordinary generosity in this country and empathy for people,” Cooper added.
“We’re very eager to get the funds to the families, but as you can imagine, they have a lot on their plate, but we will guarantee that 100% of the resources go directly to the families.”
Donations to Children First’s fund for the fire victims can be made here.