Donations for Greenfield Fire Victims

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By Justine Judge

Story Published: Nov 16, 2009 at 8:03 PM EDT

Story Updated: Nov 16, 2009 at 8:03 PM EDT

A Franklin County community is stepping up to help out fellow residents who lost everything after a fire ripped through their apartment building.

It has been one week since a Greenfield apartment building was gutted by fire. Chapman Street is still closed. Fire officials said the building is too unstable for any of the 21 tenants to go back inside and see if anything survived.

Fire Victim Mark Gagnon said, "My entire life is gone. What I have is what I'm wearing and I don't know how I'm going to recover from this. I don't know how any of us can."

To help the fire victims, Greenfield's YMCA has been collecting donations from the community. So far they have collected enough food, clothing and bedding to fill an entire gymnasium.

"All of us just identified with that potential. We all know that at any point, any building, our private home could go up in smoke and we could be out on the street. So I think everybody just immediately identified with that possibility for themselves," YMCA Board Vice President Nancee Bershof said.

"We have a lot of folks can give small amounts of money. Lot's of folks that can provide clothes and food and when you add that together it makes a big impact," YMCA Executive Director Bob Sunderland said.

The only problem is that so far they have only seen one fire victim come in for help. The YMCA is hoping to reach out to all of the displaced residents. For all fire victims who have not stopped in, the YMCA will be open from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. Wednesday. YMCA officials say once they have reached out to those residents, the rest of the donations will be offered to others in need within the community.

"People have good hearts and people want to take care of others in the community and I think you just have to provide those opportunities," Bershof said.

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