By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help an Oxford family recover from a recent house fire.
The fire occurred in the garage of the Gladstone family home around 2 a.m. on Aug. 21. The Oxford Fire Department was alerted to the fire at 2:17 a.m.
“On arrival there was heavy smoke showing from all around the entire house,” Chief Pete Scholz said. “Our guys made entry into the garage and found heavy flames in the garage.”
Nobody was injured by the fire as the family was alerted by smoke detectors.
The Gladstones have lost much of their belongings in the fire, according to friend Sarah Schafrick.
“They had only been living in the house for about a week when the fire happened,” Schafrick said. “A lot of their possessions were in boxes and still in the garage.”
Rachel Gladstone works as a preschool teacher in Lake Orion while Jon works as a CAD designer.
“(Rachel) is one of the most passionate people I have ever met for her job,” Schafrick said. “She loves teaching, she loves children and she will be doing her first year at a new early childhood development center that was just built.”
In order to expedite the Gladstone family’s recovery, Schafrick set up a GoFundMe page and is accepting material donations.
“Thankfully since putting (the GoFundMe) out on Facebook our community is just overwhelmingly amazing,” Schafrick said. “They have provided clothes and people are donating furniture.”
While Schafrick has already received donations, there are several in-demand items that have been lacking in donations. These include adult-sized clothing, a car seat, a crib and a crib-size mattress.
Parties interested in donating material goods and food to the Gladstones, can contact Schafrick via direct message on Facebook.
“The Gladstones are amazing people, and it’s really unfortunate that bad things happen to good people,” Schafrick said. “But when we have such an amazing community and everyone coming together to help, it makes it a lot easier to get through.”