Residents rallying to help Sugar Grove family left homeless after fire
Residents of Sugar Grove are rallying around a mother of six who lost her home and belongings in a fire last week.
Wyvonda Clark, her six children and her partner, Jeffrey Stapleton, were displaced when fire swept through the duplex she and Stapleton were renting at 143 Meadows Court. Clark works for the Association for Individual Development in Batavia,
A fund has been established at Castle Bank in Sugar Grove. Clothes and household goods are also being accepted to help the family make a fresh start.
With the help of school officials and the Red Cross, the family stayed at a motel for four days and a number of local restaurants supplied meals. The children are back in school. Clark is still at a motel and her children have moved in with relatives who have four children of their own.
More Coverage Links Sugar Grove house fire displaces two families [05/03/08]
"When a landlord hears that I have six children, they don't want to be bothered," Clark said. "I'm ready for all this to be over. I want my family to be in a stable place in the same environment."
Clark is attending Waubonsee Community College part time to become a registered nurse. She has lived in Sugar Grove for three years and said she would like her children to remain in the Kaneland school district, which she calls wonderful. She has a daughter, 4, and sons who are 8, 16 and 18 and twin sons who are 14.
Amelia Bumsted of Sugar Grove is coordinating efforts to help the family. She first heard about the fire through an e-mail from the PTO at Shields Elementary School in Sugar Grove.
"Something pulled at my heart. I have four children and I thought, 'How would we handle this?' " said Bumsted, a registered nurse and a volunteer for the parish nursing program at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Aurora.
Bumsted has established a Web site to help the family at web.usadv.com/clarkfamilyfund. Donations of cash, clothing or household goods may be dropped off at the Castle Bank at 36 E. Galena Blvd. in Sugar Grove. Checks can be made out to Clark Family Fund and mailed to Castle Bank, P.O. Box 650, Sugar Grove, IL 60554.
For more information on the fund, call Branch Manager Lisa Lund at (640) 466-1192, ext. 7411.
No one was home at the time of the fire, which officials say started in the kitchen. The Sugar Grove Fire Department is investigating. The neighboring duplex sustained smoke damage but no structural damage and residents have been able to return.
Clark said her father started something on the stove, left the house to look after her daughter and got a ride home without remembering he had left something cooking.
"I want to commend the whole community that has helped us," Clark said. "They put us up in a real nice motel and so many different restaurants gave us meals."
Sugar Grove Trustee Melisa Taylor has also been helping to coordinate efforts.
"I'm so proud to live here," Taylor said. "There are so many who want to help."