Community Corner

Donations Pour in for Fire Victims

Upper Main Line rallies for a family burned out of their home on Tuesday.

The Upper Main Line rallied around a young family burned out of their Malvern home this week, as donations poured in Friday at locations in Paoli and Malvern.

Organizers say that more than $5,000 in cash and checks will have been collected for the Duffy Family Relief fund by Monday.  Nearly $2,000 in cash and checks were donated Friday alone, according to Tony Dufour who set up the fund on behalf of the Duffy family.  "A big thanks to Homecooked in Paoli for collecting gifts cards, donations and diapers today.Their collection today added another $1900 to the fund as well as a box full of gift cards.  Thi is a generous community indeeed,  I believe the fund will top $5,000 on Monday! Thank you to all," Dufour said in a text message to people who have rallied around the young family.

Donations came in all sizes from a few dollars to  $2400 in retail gifts cards that were donated by the Villa Maria Academy Catholic School community members.  Every donation of any size makes a big difference to the Duffy family. The mom, dad, toddller and grandmother lost virtually everything when flames consumed their rented home on Tuesday morning.

Offers of help started coming in to Patch, T&E Care and to the family within hours of the fire.  Homecooked owner Claire Phillips Guarino and her staff immediately said "yes" when Patch asked if the shop, which makes delicious home-cooked meals to go, could serve as a donation drop-off location on Friday.

Shortly after reading about the need and learning about the donation drive scheduled for Friday, Penn Liberty Bank Regional Manager Eric Light offered the bank's parking lot on Lancaster Ave in Malvern as a collection point for furniture and large items.  Light called friends and business community neighbors who volunteered a truck and a storage unit for donated items until the Duffy family finds a permanent new home. "We've got a corner location and we serve local people in our community," Light told Patch about the offer to help.

Community and "neighbors helping neighbors" was a theme repeated throughout the day as friends and total strangers made donations to help a family weather a difficult storm.  Family friend Jessica Halloran started working on coordinating the large-scale donation effort within minutes of hearing about her friends' house. She took Friday off from her job in West Chester to coordinate the donations in Malvern. 

Brooke Solomon brought kitchen supplies that we requested on a list Holleran compiled on line to coordinate donations.  "I went to Great Valley High School. I've lived in Malvern my whole life.  I just hope if this happened to my family they would do this for me.  Malvern is a great community."

The same theme was repeated throughout the day as people from Tredyffrin, Easttown, Malvern and surrounding communities stopped in to drop off donations at Homecooked in the Paoli Village Shoppes. (the shopping center management also made a generous donation to the relief fund.   

You can still help.


 Just drop off a donation to any teller at either branch of the National Bank of Malvern or mail to: National Bank of Malvern, PO Box 38, Malvern PA 19355. Please make your check payable to 'Duffy Family Relief Fund.' Do not send cash through the mail.

Editor's Note: Also please note the name of the bank as there are several other local and area banks whose names also include the word "Malvern"


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