AIKEN --- It took days for Kenneth Keenan to help his 9-year-old son understand what happened to their Graniteville home.
Keenan told Nicholas, who has cerebral palsy, that their home burned, but it wasn't until the boy saw images of the outcome that it registered.
"We were watching it on the news last night, and he just broke down. He cried for 20 minutes," Keenan said Friday. "This is the only house he's known, so I'm trying the best I can to get us a trailer back here."
Keenan, wife Holly, Nicholas and daughter Kennie, 20, escaped from the electrical fire that gutted their mobile home early Monday morning.
They left with nothing but the clothes on their backs, but friends, family and strangers are helping them get back on their feet.
Wayne Cheselka, a friend, set up a Facebook page and organized donations on the Web site ChipIn. The response was overwhelming, he said. Food, clothing, money and household items have been donated to the Keenans.
Cheselka and Keenan befriended each other as members of Dixie Thunder ABATE, a biker group. Cheselka is its chaplain.
"Holly called me that morning asking for prayer, so I came by the house," he said. "When I met them at the house, my heart went out to them. The Lord told me I had to do something."
Cheselka sent out a Facebook message and got help creating the "Keenan Family Fire Relief" Facebook page. In four days, donors helped to raise more than $1,600, he said.
The Driven By the Spirit Biker Ministry and Waffle House will hold a car wash and bake sale for the family today.
Cheselka said he hopes additional funds can help the Keenans purchase a home since the family didn't have insurance.
Though they're still coping with losing their home, Kennie Keenan said she and her family are blessed to have people who want to help.
"I lost a lot of memories I won't get back, but we're really blessed," she said. "We're really thankful, and one day we want to pay everybody back some way."
Kenneth Keenan said he hopes he can ease his son's heartache by placing a new mobile home at the address the family has had for 17 years.
"It's heartbreaking, but we'll be back here soon," he said. "If I have to post up a tent, we'll be back here. It's all we've known."
WHAT: Car wash and bake sale to benefit the Keenans
WHEN, WHERE: 10:30 a.m. at the Waffle House at 4390 Jefferson Davis Highway, Beech Island.
TO donate: Visit rayhawk.chipin.com/fire-victims
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Visit the "Keenan Family Fire Relief" page at www.facebook.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010. All Rights Reserved.
The correct location is the Waffle House in Clearwater.
She'll never lose her memories just the tangible objects. This is a perfect example of what this country should be doing for its own instead of sending money and supplies to a bunch of thugs in another country.
peony ...we can do both. It does seem though that Americans tend to overdo when it comes to major disasters. The 9-11 is a good example. Millions are still unused according to reports. There comes a time when we need to establish priorities.
It is good to see that this family has such an active support group. As to their getting a new place to live they may want to consider buying a repo'd home. There is a place in Aiken that sells repo mobile homes for greatly reduced prices. I know a family that came away with a beautiful modular home for a fraction of the original price. Good luck and God bless....
Peonynut, I know that charity begins at home, but if our compassion is solely limited to people who are our friends, look like us, speak our language, and identify with our culture, values, and mores, then in what way is that truly compassion? I can remember when the Romanian earthquake hit with similar devastation. Countries around the world responded to their plight. The US just wanted to get the help there and get it there fast. I think that's whats going on in Haiti. Surely the Keenans have gotten a bad break. You know anything can happen to any of us at any time. The Bible even reminds us that "time and chance happen to all men." But I am sure that the Red Cross has provided some assistance and other agencies may be involved as well. And the Keenans are not alone. The community will respond generously enough that they will get back up on their feet. But the sheer scope of the disaster in Haiti demands a global response. They are our "neighbors" in the western hemisphere. They have suffered decades of extreme poverty and exploitation due to an unethical government...and now this horrific disaster! If we are to turn a deaf ear to their plight, then I must question our sense of compassion, and even our very humanity if we as a free people cannot be moved in our hearts to do as much as possible to try to relieve their suffering. The Keenans want to repay those who are helping them and that's commendable, but they may never be able to do so, and that's okay. Neighbors help each other. The people of Haiti may never be in a position to repay all those countries that have come to their aid either. But just as in the case of the Keenans; neighbors help each other. And when you really take a look at it, isn't that what makes it true charity?
Just for everyone's information, here's a link to a copy of an unclassified document from the US State Department about foreign assistance that the US received in response to hurricane Katrina. So contrary to popular belief, we've been the beneficiaries of other countries' charity too when we've had natural disasters. www.citizensforethics.org/files/Bahrain.pdf
I am running a Paypal fund raiser for this family as well as a public FaceBook page. I am also the webmistress for Dixie Thunder and you will find updates and upcoming events on that site too.
To Chip In: http://rayhawk.chipin.com/fire-victims
The FaceBook Page: http://tinyurl.com/yhmeyyp
And the Dixie Thunder Keenan Family Page
http://www.dixiethunderaiken.com/?p=927
@anotherlook "But I am sure that the Red Cross has provided some assistance and other agencies may be involved as well. And the Keenans are not alone. The community will respond generously enough that they will get back up on their feet."
I agree somewhat with what Peony is saying. We do tend to go all out for natural disasters but forget about our local folks. This family has a disabled child, a young mom to be. They were low income to begin with. Yes, people help but not nearly the turn out we see when devastation is seen on large scale. Red cross put them up for a few days...where do they go now? The plans they had didn't work out, they don't have anywhere to go. Large scale disasters you have folks willing to build shelters, they bring in mobile homes...where is the building crew or someone donating a mobile home for this family? You and Peony have a point and I believe we can care about others in another country, but I do believe we should do at least as much if not more for the people in our own country. If they were getting the same kind of help we give to non-Americans they would have a home right now and not be in a motel wondering where they will live. Surely someone has an old empty single wide they could donate and I'm someone could donate the move and setup. We see this type of help in natural disasters..why not for a single family?
@Rollingeyes There have been a few leads for used trailers, we are looking for a cheap single wide for this family and hopefully private sale as they don't have the income to take out a home loan. They owned what they had and they didn't have any insurance. I imagine somewhere someone has something they can let go of real cheap. If we can just get something on their land the friends can help fix it up, get a wheelchair ramp in there etc.
Let me just say providing assistance to a family displaced by fire and sending aid and assistance to an impoverished country devasted by an earthquake is not a mutually exclusive scenario. The earthquake took place on January the 12th. The Haitian people are still suffering and dying every day. No Rayhawk, I don't think that the Keenan's would want the same kind of help the folks in Haiti are receiving. Yes the Keenan's have been displaced and there is the concern about the disabled child, the stress on the pregnant mom and where they will go from here. But let's not forget that the problems confronting the Haitians are by orders of magnitude much more severe. The Haitians are stepping around the dead in the streets that they have covered with sheets. They don't have clean water, sewer services, any housing (remember they are living on the streets under canvas and plastic tarps), receiving daily rations of energy biscuits, and trying to find loved ones and family members who they don't know if they may be living or dead. And to top it all off, they are dodging those street thugs Peonynut talked about and hoping that looters haven't caused what few resources there are to be sold on the black market. No, I don't think that the Keenan's want to get the type of help that the Haitians are getting. The Haitians don't have a choice. And in this situation, its not about choices. Its about survival. The Keenan's want to get back into a trailer on their own land. But as the article stated, they do have access to the $1600.00 in donations collected so far. That could get them into a two bedroom wheelchair accessible apartment while folks continue to work on getting them back on their own land. Unlike the Haitians, the Keenan's have a choice.
@anotherlook I can't dispute the circumstances in Haiti and I volunteer for a charity organization (MicroGiving) who is working with the Caring House Project to help in Haiti and I have promoted online and donated to this project, like I said, you can do both, help in Haiti and help locally. I concentrate my efforts locally because it's too easy to say...oh they will get help, there are charities, here but over there.... Yes, the are of the earthquake does have it worse, each family individually is suffering the loss of home, belongings and in some cases the loss of family members but that doesn't mean we should limit our help of someone who contributes to our country, state, county, and city every day through their work, local shopping which supports local businesses, and the charity fund raisers the are well known for contributing to. 1600 is less than some of us will get back in income tax refunds....we know that amount doesn't go very far around here especially if it's lost on a temporary rental.
I can't disagree with you some believe in helping more in disasters like Haiti, some simply feel we should be a bit more active in helping our own neighbors rather than expecting the government programs, churches and charities all of which are running dry to help them out. Neighbors should be helping neighbors first IMO...I guess that is where we differ. I am helping the Haitian effort, but I'm simply helping my neighbors more.