Communities across eastern Oregon have stepped up for an Adrian family that lost their home in a fire a week before Christmas.
Initially, people in Adrian stepped in to help Carl and Michaelann Seiders and their three children, whose Ridgeview home was destroyed early Sunday, Dec. 15.
Less than a day after the fire, the community organized several fundraisers and donation drives. A GoFundMe effort alone raised $21,390 by Friday, Dec. 27.
The word spread across eastern Oregon.
Two teams playing the Adrian High School girls basketball in road games held fundraisers for the family. Vale High School’s basketball program had a fundraiser on Tuesday, Dec. 17, but the results weren’t immediately available.
On Friday, Dec. 20, Grant Union High School in John Day collected $3,000 from game spectators to help the family, which includes children 7 and 11 in elementary school and a 15-year-old who attends Adrian High School.
A John Day business, Patriot Plumbing, donated roughly $2,000 of the proceeds, according to Will Blood, a Grant School Board member, who organized the event along with Grant Union High School administrators.
Blood said that while the family might not be from the John Day community, they are still an eastern Oregon family.
“We may not know them, but we know them,” Blood said. “Eastern Oregon itself is one big community.”
During an Adrian girls basketball game in Prairie City on Saturday. Dec. 21, the local High School Boosters Club donated the proceeds of its regular auction to the Seiders family, according to Brandi Gubser, a Prairie City parent.
Gubser said the boosters did not count how much they took in, but she said the auction items went for a lot of money.
Michaelann Seiders, through a family representative, thanked the communities for their donations to help her family get back on their feet after the fire.
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
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