Progress!

As fire was threatening thousands of homes in Herriman, UT - including one of Alicia's sister's home - I was walking through Wade and Alicia's home, checking out their progress!  It's really coming along, and they hope to be able to move back in in early November, so that they can spend the holidays with their family in their new home!  The electrical wiring, plumbing, windows, exterior doors, and insulation are all in, and this week, the sheetrocking begins!

A Very different house

I went over and visited Wade and Alicia the other day, and they took me to their nearly-unrecognizable house!  I took a few pics with my phone, so they're not great, but it (obviously) looks SOOO different!  They've moved closets & walls, lifted ceilings, changed room layouts... it's gonna be so great when it's done!!

 

Attention Yard Sale Hoppers!

There will be a special benefit yard sale to help make money for the Abbott Family who lost their house and possessions to a fire a few weeks back. Come and support them!

This Saturday, June 5 at 8:00 am. 6150 South Jordan Canal Rd. (Just off of 6200 S and west of Redwood Rd) Somebody is donating cookies that we are selling and we might have ice-cream for sale too. Lots of clothing, household goods and furniture will be there for sale. Every dollar will help them rebuild their home!

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=11021261&cat=6&s_cid=S0001

Betelehemu

Last night was the benefit concert and silent auction for the Abbott family, hosted by Indian Hills Middle School in Sandy, Utah.  These are 8th and 9th grade students performing a VERY hard song, titled Betelehemu.  Wade sang this while at BYU in the Men's Choir, and I dare say these middle school students rival that performance.  They did so great!



Thanks to everybody who came and supported the benefit and the students.  It was a fun evening!

Here is the Abbott Family expressing their Thanks to everybody at Indian Hills Middle School for their love and support!

Benefit Concert

Indian Hills Middle School (have we mentioned how AwEsOmE they are?! We ♥ IHMS) is hosting a benefit concert. All proceeds will go the the Abbott Family Fire fund to help them rebuild their home!


The concert is Wednesday, May 26 @ 6:00 p.m.  The school is located at 1180 E. Sanders Road (11600 S.).


There will be a silent auction, where some of the items to bid on include: 
-8x10 autographed pictures of the most popular Jazz players and Coach Sloan
-gift cards
-cameras
-a Moab Adventure get-a-way
-& many other fabulous items!


The Student Body Officers are working on a separate silent auction featuring items that students would be interested in.  Come see what they have to bid on!

Admission to the concert is free, but you may be asked to clean out your pockets at the door ;) (completely voluntary - of course).



Wade's 7th grade choir will perform first, followed by the orchestra and dancers from the school, and then Wade's 8th and 9th grade choir will perform.   If you haven't heard Wade's choirs before - they're AWESOME!



Please tell everybody about the concert and come show your support for the Abbott Family! ♥

Indian Hills Middle School

I spent a few hours helping Wade and Alicia get their Thank You cards sent out the other day.  I was able to see first hand many of the kind notes and generous donations from people at all stages of life.

The Teachers, Faculty, students, and parents of students at Wade's school, Indian Hills Middle School, have been so generous!

One student donated money he had earned last summer mowing lawns... I believe it was originally set aside for his missionary fund.

Yesterday, one of the parents, who is an owner of "Creamies," held a fund raiser at the school.  Every penny from the Creamies they sold will be donated to the Abbott's!

Another set of parents wrote a very kind note, saying, "We wanted to help.  I know this isn't much, we wish we could do more..."  But trust me, it wasn't chump change.

I have heard that there will be a benefit concert of some kind at the school to help the Abbott's, but I don't have the details yet.  I hope to be able to share them soon - check back for an update!

A HUGE Thank You goes out to everyone at Indian Hills!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

the DaMaGE

People are Wonderful!

People have been so great to the Abbott's!  I don't know all of the stories of who has helped them and what has been done for them, but wanted to share a few I do know about.

The night of the fire, before Wade and Alicia & family even left the scene, someone from their LDS ward went out and bought everyone in the family brand new shoes.  THANK YOU!

The first night after the fire, the Abbott's were staying with Alicia's parents.  Someone had pizza delivered to the Cox home.  Alicia said that was the first thing she was able to eat after the fire.  I'll bet Pizza never tasted sO GoOd.  THANK YOU!

After seeing the first story on ABC 4, a former high school class mate of Wade's called and offered to help them out with cabinets when they're ready for them!  That's a HUGE expense!  THANK YOU!

Teachers at Indian Hills Middle School (where Wade is the Choir teacher) gathered all the money they could and gave it to Wade his first day back!  That is where the cash that was showed on the second ABC news story came from.  THANK YOU, Teachers!  We know first hand how difficult it is being a teacher and trying to make ends meet!  THANK YOU!

One of Wade's former students (now in the 8th grade and not in Choir, and who I believe is disabled) went around to some of his friends and pulled together what cash they could.  They handed him an envelope with four dollars and change.  What a sweet gesture and sacrifice!  THANK YOU!

THANK YOU to everyone for the clothes, furniture, toys, EVERYTHING!  I'll share more stories as I have time and as I hear about more of them!

ABC 4's second story

We feel like this story was taken a little out of context, unfortunately. The video shows Alicia flipping through a stack of cash and checks, but doesn't air what wade and alicia were saying about the money they're received. The purpose of the follow-up story was to talk about how people can protect themselves for having a similar problem with insurance, but it was also a chance for Wade and Alicia to share all of the wonderful stories of people helping them. Here is the new story (minus the video - it's not available as of yet).

TAKING ACTION: Family without insurance gets help to rebuild home
Reported by: Brent Hunsaker
Last Update: 8:37 am




WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Wednesday night ABC 4 took action for a family burned out of its home, and you've responded.


The Abbott family tells us they've been overwhelmed by the offers of help.


"These people don't have a lot of money, I know that, and something inside of me just doesn't want to accept this," said Alicia Abbott, the family's mother. "I feel so much gratitude, and I know it's coming from their hearts."


They'd only been in their dream home for a couple weeks when fire destroyed the house.


The Abbotts say they contacted their insurance broker before the house fire, asking him to sign them up for home insurance, but that request was never processed.


"The state of Utah does recognize that when an insurance agent does make a promise to procure insurance or acts negligently on a professional duty, or acting on a professional duty to acquire insurance, that there is the possibility to holding that insurance agent liable for losses," explained Chris Peterson, Assistant Dean of the University of Utah Law School, and a contract law expert.


Since the Abbotts bought their home with cash, they didn't use a mortgage company. A mortgage company would not allow a home sale to close without proper insurance. Peteron says to make sure you're adequately insured, don't do it over the phone, but instead get a copy of the paperwork and sign over a check.


Copyright 2010 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

ABC 4 Utah's coverage

Alicia's sister contacted all of the local TV stations to see if they would be willing to cover the story.  ABC 4 was the only one who responded that they would do it.  We really appreciate Brent Hunsaker and ABC 4 for the time and coverage they have provided!  Obviously, without insurance money, the Abbott's are in desperate need of money so that they can re-fix their home.





Insurance company will not pay for fire damaged home
Reported by: Brent Hunsaker
Last Update: 5/13 9:39 am


WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Monday's fire started in the kitchen and spread to the dining and living rooms. "All these couches are soaked in smoke, they'll have to be thrown away," explained Wade Abbott as he escorted his family through the damage Wednesday evening.


This was supposed to be their dream house. Alicia Abbott said, "It was perfect for us. We loved it. We spent 2 months here working and fixing it up." That had only been living in the house a couple weeks when the fire struck. 16-year old Katie Abbott's porcelain doll collection was still in boxes. As she looked at everything destroyed, Katie cried out, "How are we going to do this, dad?" His responded, "Hey, we started over when we bought the house. We'll just start over again."


But it will be decidedly more difficult this time. The Abbott's bought the house at auction and that meant they had to pay for it in cash within 24 hours. They scrapped together the money from their savings and from relatives. Now, there is precious little money left to rebuild.


Alicia Abbott said she had talked to their insurance agent. "I called the same day we bought the house," she said. "I told him, we need to have this right now because it needs to be protected. He said he'd get right on it. I just thought it was done. I really did."


Now they're told the policy for the new home was never processed. The insurance company will pay for the personal possessions lost in the fire, but not the structure.


Still, the Abbott family is grateful that everyone got out alive and determined to find a way to overcome the considerable obstacles they now face. "My overwhelming feeling is gratitude," said Alicia Abbott. "We made it out of here with our whole family." Wade Abbott said, "We're just going to have faith, do our best and see what happens."


A fund has been established at Chase Bank in the name of the Abbotts. Donations can be made at any branch under account number 2930377524. There is also a Paypal account available.


Copyright 2010 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

KSL's initial news coverage of the fire

WEST JORDAN -- A father and his five young children escaped safely when their house caught fire.
Father and 5 children escape house fire

May 11th, 2010 @ 8:32am

Firefighters say the man was in the garage in the 3500 West block of Foxton Circle (about 7200 South) when the lights started flickering around 8:30 p.m. Monday. The man sensed something was wrong, went inside the house and found a fire burning in the kitchen.

"At that time there were four children in the upstairs of the house and an infant in the basement. He proceeded to get them out of the house and called 911," says Battalion Chief Reed Scharman of the West Jordan Fire Department.

No one was injured.

Firefighters doused the fire quickly but had to rip open some walls and the ceiling to make sure the flames were extinguished.

The home is not livable. No word yet on the cause of the fire.

The Abbott Family Story

Wade and Alicia Abbott have a wonderful family. They have seven children ranging in age from one year to sixteen. They have never had much of this world’s luxuries because their values have leaned toward their family and friends and things other than money. Wade is a musician who wanted to teach his love of music to the rising generation, so he chose a career in teaching. He now teaches music at Indian Hills Middle School. It’s a noble profession but the financial rewards are meager. Alicia made the choice years ago to be a stay at home Mom.

After years of being crammed into a tiny little house, they finally found their dream house. A nice big house that had 4 bathrooms, 5 bedrooms and was in their same neighborhood so they didn’t have to leave the friends they loved. The house had seen better days, it was run down, with broken windows and doors, and had been foreclosed on and was going to auction in 2 days. They scrounged up all the money they could from their own savings, extended family and friends borrowed money for them and they bought the home at auction. Everyone rejoiced with them. It took two months of working day and night to get the house in good enough condition to be appraised for the new loan. The extended family and all the neighbors donated hour after hour of labor to get the house ready.

Finally they were able to start moving in. Beds were put in the bedrooms and everything was piled into the main floor in boxes waiting to be put away. On Monday May 10th, 2010 in the evening, Wade was in the garage building shelves; Alicia was at the old house scrubbing cupboards with Aubrie, the 10 year old daughter. Katie (16) was in the upstairs shower getting ready for bed, Gideon (7) was asleep on his bed, Walter (5) and Brent (2) were watching a movie upstairs in the family room. Aria, (1) was asleep downstairs in her crib. Ann (14) was at her Nana’s house doing homework.

Wade saw the lights flicker in the garage and thought one of the kids must be messing around. He had this feeling that he should go inside to check on it. As he opened the door he saw that the kitchen was in flames. He grabbed the phone to call 911 and started rounding up the kids shouting at them to “get out of the house!” Walter held Brent’s hand and they went downstairs and outside. Katie jumped out of the shower, grabbed a bathrobe and hurried downstairs and outside. Gideon, who had fallen asleep, woke up from his Dad’s shouts and ran downstairs and outside. Once Wade had them out of the house, he crawled on his hands and knees under the thickening smoke down to the basement to get the baby who he knew was asleep on their bed in the basement master bedroom. He cradled her with his body and ran in a crouch up the basement stairs, through the burning kitchen and dining room to get to the front door. Later that evening the fire inspectors told Wade that he was incredibly lucky to get himself and Aria out before the kitchen flashed and exploded into flames. The children ran next door and Wade ran to their old house, about a block away, where Alicia was working, to make sure that the rest of the family was there and no one was still in the burning house. Alicia and Aubrie were in the car and just driving out of the driveway to pick Ann up from her grandparent’s house when he arrived. Then Wade knew that everyone was safe.

The firemen got the fire out before the house burned entirely to the ground. But everything the family owned was destroyed, their new house and everything they had just moved into it. They stood watching and crying with their family and neighbors as the firemen battled the flames. The worst part came when Alicia called her insurance agent from the neighbor’s house while everything she owned was being destroyed and learned that the insurance company wasn’t going to cover the loss. All they had saved was what they were wearing; work clothes, pajamas and a bathrobe.
They need to rebuild their home. Without insurance to help them, and having used all their savings to buy the home, they have nothing left to be able to rebuild. We set up an account for them at Chase Bank if anyone would like to help donate. Account # 2930377524. Any donations would be helpful. Please help us get the word out to help this family. Contact with their family can be made at AbbottFamilyFire@gmail.com.