Aiken County Family Lost Everything In a Fire
Posted in: Charity | Comments (0)
Kenneth, Holly, Kennie Marie and Nicholas Keenan. All I know is the fire broke out Sunday night while Holly and Nicholas were in bed and Kenneth and their daughter Kennie Marie were watching TV. He smelled smoke and went to investigate, by that time the fire was well on its way under the house and into the walls.
Dixie Thunder and Driven By The Spirit have collected food, toiletries, a microwave, blankets, towels and I have a list of household items already that people are willing to donate once they get a permanent place.
We have a guy standing by to help him move the old trailer off the lot once he is ready. He has a track hoe and can get the trailer in dumpsters for Rooster at no charge.
Any financial help is needed and would be appreciated. They will need to get a new place to live in as soon as they get the old place gone.
Paypal donations are being collected through My personal Paypal account (Becky Raymond) With permission from the director of Driven by the Spirit and the Chapter Coordinator of Dixie Thunder of Aiken County. I am also running a public Facebook page for the Keenan Family here: Keenan Family Fire Relief
Remember if you use paypal to log in and agree to cover the fees of the donation so that fees don’t get sucked out of it. If you do not use paypal you can just use your credit/debit card but please be aware that the fees are deducted from each donation at the rate of 2.9% + $0.30 USD
If the widget below doesn’t work for you the paypal donation email for this fund raiser is paypal@dixiethunderaiken.com If you have a website, blog or MySpace page please visit the chip in page and grab the widget to share on your site.
http://rayhawk.chipin.com/fire-victims
Mick has access to the list of contributers and I’m also supplying him with PDF records of all contributions to paypal@dixiethunderaiken.com.
Becky @ January 26, 2010
Fund Raiser to help two Ohio families with burial costs for their children
Posted in: Charity | Comments (0)
This is a wish from TheFerstFamily
If you can help at all please visit this link
I WISH To Help Raise Money for Funeral Cost for 3 boys
On Sunday January 24th, we stood helplessly as 3 boys, ages 7, 8 and 10 were pulled from the Sandusky River at Fremont Ohio. As we all prayed, hoped and wished and with each minute passing by we soon learned there was no hope, all three of these precious angels had gone to heaven.
I can not express enough, the sorrow felt by everyone. Each fire fighter, Emt, First responder… Seeing the momma run to her babies, it’s just all so horrific. Each time a boy was found a fireman would remove his helmet and place it on his heart.
The mother of 2 of the boys was at work when this tragedy happen, imagine getting that call. Her boys were under the care of a relative. She worked 2 jobs to take care of her sons. The parents of all 3 children decided to have one funeral for all the boys.
They are struggling very hard with the costs of the funeral and burial. And I want to help them. I have $10.00 from the proceeds from a auction I had and would like to raise at least 100.00 to help in some way, and more if we can.
A fund has been set up at any Croghen Colonial bank in Fremont Ohio. I will post the links so that this tragedy can be verified by donors. It has also been picked up by the AP. I must warn you, to have a box of kleenex ready when you read. The funds will go to my pay pal and tomorrow I will take the first round of funds over. If you would rather not donate to my pay pal, I think you could call the bank.
Thank you for taking the time to read my wish for De’Ante, Jay’Den and Rafeal and there families. You can see that there are several videos about this at the links I posted. I wanted to use the boys photos but not sure of copy rights and all that, so I will leave it blank.
I am using my account to make the wish, that is why it says Tiffin Ohio. The families are from Fremont Ohio which is about 22 miles from me. My sister lives right at the water and we were visiting her at the time.
www.thenews-messenger.com/section/NEWS01
www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=11872446
www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=11875608
Becky @ January 26, 2010
Great Start to the New Year
Posted in: Family | Comments (0)
Our New Year started out in a positive direction.
New Years day which is also Amy’s Birthday found us enjoying a great family holiday meal and celebration. We were surprised that there were gifts involved! We expected a very small holiday but in fact Me, Amy and the boys were totally spoiled. Josh and Amy went up earlier in the day to begin cooking. This was the first holiday dinner that either of them has ever cooked. Josh was in control of the ham and turkey, Amy was in control of vegetables and my mom was in control of desserts. Carrie always has control of the deviled eggs because nobody can make that as good as she can.
Amy spent the fall knitting socks for both my Mom and Carrie and she also made a magic ball of yarn for my mom. My mom also loves to knit and crochet. This ball of yarn includes little gifts within that my mom will find as she creates her next project using the yarn. We managed to find a coffee maker for Josh and bought him a pound of coffee and once we found out what my sister had in store for Donnie, Amy and Josh went out and got him something that would add to his enjoyment.
I was the only one with the camera so you don’t get to see me and Amy opening gifts but we were spoiled. My mom gave us a heated mattress pad which was so desperately needed and matching fleece PJ’s also needed and very welcome. My sister bought each of us a shirt and pant set along with slippers and everyone got a Starbucks gift card. We got an extra treat of fancy cocoa. The boys spent the night with my Mom and Sis and Amy and I went on home to enjoy a nice quiet evening in a warm cozy bed with our new PJ’s sipping on luxury cocoa…beautiful ending to the first day of 2010
Here is the day in pictures:
If you can’t see the slide show here is the album:
 |
| Holiday 2010 |
Becky @ January 8, 2010
2009 Year in Review
Posted in: Family | Comments (0)
This year has actually been a pretty good year for our family.
I had done a favor for a friend who wanted to do a favor in return. She sent Amy and I some cash to go out to dinner and starbucks. It was an awesome gift and Amy and I enjoyed a night out.
With the help of some friends we have walls in the office, a wood stove and a chimney.
We visited my mom for her birthday. It’s not easy to have Amy home on a day when we actually have gas money to go to Columbia SC so this was a real treat for my mom.
In mid Feb several bikers showed up and dropped off a ton of deck parts. Someone in our community donated his 20 year old deck to turn into a wheelchair ramp for my kennel. Guys went with chain saws to cut the deck into parts that would load onto pickup trucks and then hauled them to our house. Once all the parts were in the yard plans went into motion to build the ramp.
In Feb when we got our income tax refund we got the truck we seriously needed and I finally got some new eyeglasses. We got a great deal on a used chest freezer and my friend Rick found an old fridge that worked pretty good and he gave that to us.
A few bumps and scrapes with the truck, it’s an old truck, it has an electrical problem that we haven’t been able to trace. As a result we keep blowing alternators. We keep blowing tires but don’t have the money to get new ones so we keep pumping green slime into them and hope they will make it till 2010 income tax.
In March me and a friend were chatting in IM and she causally asked me if I had got a new fridge yet. I hadn’t bought a fridge though because we found a great deal on a used chest freezer and we bought that so my food was finally out of the cooler. The conversation casually turned to other applicances I had or did not have and it was learned that I didn’t have a microwave. We were both checking out microwaves online. She found some that were cool and wanted feedback, I found some that were nice and commented on them. All this time I actually though she wanted a new microwave and we were just chatting about appliances. A little later in the conversation she informs me that the one microwave I really liked was going to be delivered to me...I hadn’t expected that! I of course said oh no, don’t do that, or something to that effect but while we were chatting she went ahead and placed the order so it was a done deal. It’s a an awesome microwave and has served our family very well. Glad to say it’s still in excellent condition a year later.
April, we found out just how much our family means to us as we faced the Beech Island Tornado. Our home and pets were fine, we lost a tire on our car but the next day after realizing what we had been through we felt a little closer knit knowing just how close we were to the forces of nature that flattened homes and uprooted trees but spared us. Later in the month Rick and Josh built the new kennel gate in preparation for the ramp build and a few days later the wheelchair ramp was built by Rick, my sons, Richard, Karen, Bob and Tom (Dixie Thunder)
May…ok well the month of May kinda sucked
In June, Amy and Went away out of state leaving my sons in charge of the house and kennel. This was our first time leaving the kids for a long period of time without someone over 30 nearby in case of an emergency. It was an awesome trip and we pulled the whole thing off for $50. We went to North Carolina and stayed in a tiny primitive campground, visited the town of Cherokee and watched the Warriors of Anikituhwa. It was cold in the Mountains, I’m glad I had the nice home made socks Amy made for me. We came back home and decided we needed to have more back yard cook outs so we hauled over a huge cement tube my kids found somewhere and built a back yard BBQ pit.
In July all the AC’s blew out at the same time. Office AC, my sons room AC and we were having radiator trouble with the Lumina. My mom offered to buy us a new AC for the office as my early Birthday present and we greedily accepted that offer since we were roasing our butts off. Some friends online gave some tips to help save Josh’s AC for a while longer and he did manage to limp through the summer with the failing AC. Our radiator issue was fixed rather quickly at home and didn’t cost us too much.
In August I had sprained my wrist and was sure my birthday was going to suck. Amy had a day off and we had plans to go to Hopeland Gardens. With a sprain there was no way I was going to be able to roll around the gardens and it was my right wrist which meant I wouldn’t be able to use the scooter either. I was whining to my friend Lori about what a sucky day it was going to be. I can’t stand to be pushed in my chair, if I can’t do it myself I don’t want to do it at all..insert image of a very butch grown woman stamping her feet and pouting like a 4 year old…
Lori started asking me if there were things I could do that wouldn’t require much wheeling. Well….not really. All the nature things that are free would be too hard to do with a bum wrist and most of the time we don’t have money for fun things. Lori recalled earlier in the year when another friend had sent Amy and I off to dinner and Starbucks. The next day she surprised me and Amy with some birthday cash so we could go to dinner and Starbucks. While also trying to figure out things to do one of Amy’s friends John told us about an easy access boat landing on the Savannah River and he thought I might be able to easily get my chair right to the water. We decided to check it out and sure enough I was able to dip my toes in the river, we then went off to Dinner and Starbucks for my birthday
Amy and I did get our day out at Hopeland Gardens where she spent the day spinning yarn from fleece.
In September we had a sure test of endurance. My son heard a strange sound in the utility room, a hissing sound. He pulled apart the cover to water heater to find the heater leaking. Luckily it was the first of the month and we could go immediately to get plumbing supplies to fix the pipe. He managed to quite an impressive job on the damaged pipe and was shifting the heater into position when another pipe burst dumping gallons of water onto the floor then the heater started sinking fast through the floor. He called for help and together he and Amy sawed pipes, cut cords and at the last moment he lifted the heater and hauled it to the porch. Now we find out the heater must have been leaking for a while, under the floor covering we found a totally damaged utility room floor. Back to the Home Depot to get lumber to fix the floor…this was an expense we didn’t have room for, but was worse was after the lumber was loaded onto the truck we discovered a flat tire. Yeah, Sept wasn’t such a great month but we did get the whole floor rebuilt and now not even a stomping elephant is going to hurt that floor and my son saved the water heater and was able to rebuild all the plumbing.
In October Dixie Thunder held the 3rd Annual Cripped Critter Benefit Event which helps my sanctuary for special needs animals. We raised enough to get a few things tended to. The very first item on the list was to get a good grooming for Ginger the Elderly Dachshund who along with Sidney the Gunshot Kitty are the Cripped Critter Mascots and are of course spoiled rotten.
In November Amy managed to get Thanksiving day off. That almost never happens! My Mom and Sister were going to come to Aiken and we were all going to go out to dinner at Shoneys. My sister would have taken the boys in her car and Amy and I would go in the truck. Amy got home from work and said the tire was losing air…yeah great ANOTHER tire that needs slime, but we were broke. I called my sis and she said she’d pick up some slime on her way into town. My son was complaining of an upset stomach so I gave him something to calm his belly, his friend shaved him up and cut his hair, everyone washed clothes and we were all ready for a nice ThanksGiving Dinner with the whole family. Kid comes into my room in the morning still sick. He was going to have to stay home. Called my sis, plans were still on. Amy goes to the truck to get something and the tire was flat..to the ground, on the rim, no way to slime it FLAT. Errrg…called my sister and said we’d have to get the tire off, take it to the station to slime it, pop it back on then we could go. Ok…well we didn’t get a jack with this truck. We have been sliming tires all this time, not replacing them we didn’t realize that a bottle jack we had wouldn’t jack high enough. Also didn’t know the lumina scissor jack would slide off the frame once the truck was off the ground. Ok, that didn’t go so well. Dinner plans were canceled and we grumpily ate oatmeal for dinner being thankful that nobody got hurt when the truck slipped three times off the jack.
The next day a friend loaned us a universal jack to jack the truck up but even that jack failed. Amy managed by herself to slowly and carefully jack the truck with the scissor jack and she saved the day! The tire was slimed and recently our fourth tire started to leak so that is now slimed too and we are so impressed with how this slime has helped us we are going to pre slime our new tires when we get them with income tax.
Finally we come to the month of December. We held a late Thanksgiving Dinner since we couldn’t get together in November. That dinner was wonderful and it was great to have everyone together under the same roof for a family meal. Shortly after coming home though I came down with a flu and just after I started to recover from that I got sick with mono. I was pretty weak with the mono and fell twice in one night injuring both my good (or better) hit and my better knee. I can’t roll in the rain when it’s raining out I have a great deal of trouble getting from my bedroom to my office. I knew I needed to be resting in bed in a warm room but I also have responsibilities that nobody can help me with. I am the designer and admin for Dixie Thunders website, Egroups and Social networks and I’m also the Community Leader and an Admin on the MicroGiving Team. These responsibilities require me to be at my computer and my computer is in my wheelchair accessible, finished, office building on the other side of my kennel. Bad weather makes this very difficult and being sick just makes it nearly impossible. I have been complaining for a while about needing a laptop or good size PDA so days when it’s too hard for me to get to my office I could work from my room so this wasn’t a new complaint but after being injured I was full of whining and complaining because I just couldn’t stand not doing the things I do. I vented mostly to my friend Lori…my family hears me complain all the time. Figured I’d give them a break LOL. Lori knew that we were trying to figure out a way to get me some kind of used portable computer to handle my web work away from my office, we were hoping to do something at income tax time and were trying to juggle that with the real needs which are brand new tires and having the electrical system in the truck repaired.
Well…Lori posts this message on my FaceBook Page:
Hey Becky………..Guess what????????? Ya know pay it forward??????? I need you to email me your mailing information so I can mail you A NEW DELL LAPTOP COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lou said MERRY CHRISTMAS! We love ya’ll and know you have needed this for some time now. I got photos to email to ya too! YEEE HAAAA~~~~~~~~~~
This folks is now 2009 ends. We have had some rough times, but have been able to manage the rough times pretty good. I have awesome friends and family and together we have helped each other through another year. I have mentioned what others have done for us. Now I’ll mention a few things we have done for others.
Amy and took part in the Down Rider Benefit Event and both benefit runs for the Helping Hands Shelter for Abused and Neglected Children. One run brings school supplies the other run brings holiday gifts. Through my Handipets Site we managed to help raise $3,700 for a kitten in need of life saving surgery and more recently for the same kitten we raised nearly $200 for his neuter and after care. Amy crocheted comfort shawls for two women who lost their mother and a blanket for a new child who was born. After the tornado we offered food help and any other services we could offer. We gave a home to a feral kitten who was given safety by a local biker, she wasn’t able to give her a home and didn’t want this little feral kit to go to the shelter where she would have had no chance at survival. The kit had a home lined up for her as soon as she was ready for solid food. We have made donations online through chip ins and locally we always mange to donate something.
Becky @ December 26, 2009
