Syracuse Scenery Creates GoFundMe for Fire-Devastated Family

	The GoFundMe link is gofund.me/581669ea.

Syracuse Scenery and Stage Lighting has created a Go Fund Me campaign to help the family of an employee who recently lost everything in a devastating fire.

The two-alarm fire, which destroyed the residence, has the family of eight in acute need, as they escaped only with their cellphones and the clothes on their backs, notes Christine Kaiser, president of Syracuse Scenery. She adds that the employee "is the mom of a refugee family of eight, who is now dealing with finding a new place to live and replacing everything they owned, including all their vital family documents. The family -- consisting of Mom, four younger children, and three adult children -- originally lived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); they spent a few years in a refugee camp in Burundi and were settled several years ago as refugees in Syracuse.

"A few weeks ago, I would never have considered that I might be a person reaching out to friends and acquaintances to ask for financial contributions," Kaiser writes in an email. "In the days after the fire, I assumed that our local community had resources to provide for this extreme hardship. When I found out that this was a mistaken idea, I thought there must be charities or other organizations that would contribute to this cause. Another mistaken idea. My requests to others for suggestions of resources to approach did not result in new viable resources."

Kaiser adds, "Syracuse Scenery has worked for many years with local refugee resettlement organizations. We are a proud employer of refugees. At this time, our local refugee assistance services are dealing with an influx of new refugees and are unable to provide assistance to a refugee family settled several years ago."

The GoFundMe link is gofund.me/581669ea.

Updating the situation to LSA, Kaiser says, "Two weeks into our campaign we are delighted to have received donations and donation pledges for most of the needed replacement furnishings for the family. Our county has provided some modest funding and we are truly appreciative of the financial support we have received from both our local community and the broader communities in which the company participates. We're not at the end of the financial need yet -- but our gratitude for the support received and to come is beyond enormous."

She adds that the experience has led her to take further action. "I hope to explore opportunities with non-profit folk for the creation of employee assistance or crisis funding to which my and/or other companies could participate. As a personal contributor to our local refugee assistance organizations, I also have begun investigating after-settlement refugee assistance on my list of things to do in the future."

However, she says, "In the here and now, the family has extraordinary needs and I and Syracuse Scenery remain committed to doing anything we take on to the best of our ability."