A fire over Labor day weekend destroyed a Fargo family's home and everything inside of it. No one was hurt in the fire and the family of six has been getting by since. But today, unexpected help came from classmates of one of the daughters at Fargo North High School.
The fire took everything from the Garcia family. The oldest daughter was home alone when it went down, not much made it out but her.
"Like only a shirt that I was wearing and then my cat survived," says Sammi Garcia
Once students at Fargo North High School heard what happened, they pulled together. Student council president Keith Lehman put the student bodies sentiment together simply, "you have to put yourself in their shoes, they lost everything to their name."
At the first home football game after the fire students started raising money to help the Garcia family back on their feet. Even to Lehman it was shocking what they were capable of, "we had a miracle minute that Friday after Labor day weekend and we raised 16 hundred in one minute. So that was unheard of for Fargo north."
But it didn't stop there. Clubs around school sold suckers, chances to throw a pie in your favorite teachers face, and dance tickets to tonight's homecoming. And when it was all said and done, it's just a bunch of kids that made a huge difference.
Bobbi Garcia, Sammi's mom, was at a loss for words, "it means the world to us because it was a total loss and this will help immensely."
All the hard work over the last couple weeks, paid off to the tune of seven thousand two hundred dollars. Enough to get back a portion of everything they lost. And with it, a little perspective was gained.
Bobbi says she's especially thankful to Lehman who was the main organizer behind the fundraising, but also the countless others, "just the classmates and all the donations and everything is just amazing, it's overwhelming."
450 tickets were sold to tonight's homecoming dance, countless suckers, and all of those pies in the face all helped contribute to the oversized check the Garcia family received Friday afternoon. It really makes you proud of our young adults growing up right here in Fargo.
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