MUST SEE: Donations Pour in for Fire Victims

Volunteers sorting clothes Monday afternoon. Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com — Volunteers sorting clothes Monday afternoon.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com

The outpouring of support for those who lost everything in Friday night’s four-alarm fire at the Racquet Club Apartments in Middletown has been overwhelming.

Donations came by the carload – and even the dump truck load – Monday at the Walter Miller Elementary School.

“It’s amazing, remarkable,” Middletown Fire Marshal Jim McGuire said as he took inventory of all the donations that poured in Monday.

State Representative Frank Farry, who is also chief of the Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company, said he began to the organize the donation drive the morning after the fire and it all came together in a matter of hours. Farry added that nearly the entire event was organized through social media.

Outgoing Samuel Evertt PTO President Missy Kitzmiller said she posted the request for donations on the school’s PTO Facebook page after learning about the fire, and then went to her father’s house for his birthday. She asked that the donations be dropped at her house.

When she arrived home, she found her husband overwhelmed with donations that filled the driveway. There was so many donations that a 24-foot-long and 16-foot-long truck were used to move it all.

Rachel Collins, Kitzmiller, Farry and other local business people and officials teamed up to plan Monday’s big event.

Close to 200 volunteers streamed through the shoes, clothes, hygiene products, toys and other donations from 7:30 a.m. to late in the day. By evening, those who lost everything in the fire were expected to come and collect the items they need.

All ages of volunteers were represented as they feverishly worked to sort the donated items in the side the gym and hallways of the school.

“The amount of stuff that has been given is just amazing,” Middletown resident and Neshaminy School District employee Patricia McGoldenrock said as she sorted shirts.

“Most of these people volunteering and donating don’t even know the victims,” Farry said, surveying the donations.

Outside the school, private citizens came to drop-off good, as trucks filled with items collected at the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Falls Township.

Staff from State Senator Tommy Tomlinson, Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick and Farry’s officers will be on hand as survivors come in to help them get new copies of important government paperwork. Officials from the Red Cross will also be on hand.

The Detective Christopher Jones Foundation collected gift cards and cash donations to help the fire victims.

“This is paying it forward times a zillion!” Kitzmiller said.