By Gerard O’Connor

Ten years ago, a group from “The Place” in Cumming decided to offer low-cost transitional housing as one of their many outreach ministries. Last November the project moved from a trailer home into a duplex house, a safer, more suitable situation for the families.

In the darkness of the morning of March 10, disaster enveloped the project when a fire gutted the duplex.

Sister June Racicot, OP, who helped start the 10-year-old project, said it was ironic that the fire struck now. For years in the old trailer home, there was constant fear of fire as all there was for heat was portable heaters. In their new home, residents felt safe at last.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, according to the Forsyth County Fire Department, and no one was hurt. The sole casualty was Hallelujah, the pet bird of Shylow Campbell, one of three children who fled the fire. The young owner says her mother has promised her a new one.

Sojourners House started as an offshoot of “The Place,” but has been incorporated separately as it has grown. It receives donations and foundation support and much hard work from people in the Cumming area. Norma Jean said the fire struck at the very roots of the program and it will take the much needed generosity of many people to rebuild.

The only belongings Cindy Frady could save were in four grocery bags. Everything in her home was destroyed: furniture, personal mementos and all her clothing.

She was working when the fire broke out and feels lucky. If she had been at home she feels she would have been at least severely injured. She had been living there only one month.

The fire took hold in a matter of minutes. The Campbell family, who lived upstairs, awoke to a smoke-filled room and intense heat. The three children had only the day before attended a class in how to survive a fire, part of their education at Cumming Elementary. They were able to put into action all that they had learned. Crawling out of a burning house, they called 911 for the fire department.

Michelle Campbell, their mother, said she does not know where the strength came for her to carry two of her children at the same time, out the door of the house while, in the words of Joseph, her son, “the big ol’ glow stuff was around them.”

A neighbor offered the family shelter and help and nine-year-old Sarah said they even let them look at the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on television.

Sojourners House is the only one of its kind in Forsyth County area and offers transitional housing to help people get a new start in life. It is a project that crosses ecumenical boundaries and is supported by and gives care to people of many different faiths.

Rev. Herb Flanders, minister at Lanier United Methodist, said that it is one of the most needed ministries in Cumming. He was on hand at “The Place” to offer both emotional and spiritual support to the affected families. After a meeting with the board of directors to form a plan of action for recovery, Flanders could be found in his business suit and tie, playing a game of horseshoe with 10-year-old Joseph Campbell.

More hard work will be needed, along with a lot more prayers and support. Sister Racicot appealed for any form of help that people can give – furniture, clothes and especially financial assistance no matter how small. All checks may be made out to Sojourners House, Inc., and sent to 562 Lakeland Plaza, Box 394, Cumming, Ga., 30130.

Out of the ashes of a devastating fire comes a story of courage and hope. The Campbell children have been chosen as the national poster children for fire prevention and were the heroines and hero of their school when they returned March 11.