Ryan Staska, Michaela Chambers, Casey Bradford and Jedediah Blum-Evitts sort through scorched remains of the two fires at Eagles Nest Trailer Park. Jenna Kunze photo.

In the wake of recent tragedies in Haines, community members have pooled resources of time, food, donations and, largely – money, primarily through an online crowdfunding platform called GoFundMe.

In the past month, more than $14,000 has been raised across five different campaigns to alleviate community members recovering from an infant’s death, house fires, severe pet injury and a broken ankle.

In December, the death of six-month-old Kenzie, foster child of Sherri Kessner-Kinegak and Josh Poirier, set the community in motion: Lori Carter set up a GoFundMe page garnering over $6,000 to enable Poirier to take time off from out-of-town work; Krystal Lloyd organized a bake sale with the contributions of more than 20 others at IGA Supermarket that earned the family almost $2,000 “for those weary of using a credit card online to contribute to the GoFundMe page,” Lloyd said.

Carter said she turned to the online campaign for a fast and far-reaching option to generate money for the family. GoFundMe campaigns are free to set up, and donations are subject to a 2.9 percent processing fee plus 30 cents per donation.

“When a tragedy happens to a dear friend, you want to help in any way that you can,” Carter said. “Once I knew there was a need for financial donations, GoFundMe was a quick option that could let both the Haines community come together to support this family and for friends further away (to donate).”

The transition to the new year brought a succession of house fires to Haines that destroyed three trailer homes and left second and third-degree burns on a family’s pet dog, Archer.

On Jan. 4, Cody Hotch’s trailer home in Eagles Nest Trailer Park caught fire, eventually spreading by wind and badly damaging next-door neighbor, Michael Whittington’s, trailer. Both Hotch and Whittington had GoFundMe pages set up on their behalf, organized by their sister and child’s mother respectively, to help pay for short-term housing and to get back on their feet after losing everything in the fire.

Mariah Morris, the mother of Whittington’s child and GoFundMe page organizer, said that the success of the online fundraising platform depends on how much the page is shared. While Hotch’s page has been shared 299 times and generated over $2,000, Whittington’s has been shared less than half as many times and amassed close to $900.

“I think what happened is that people didn’t realize that Mike lost everything, too,” Morris said.

To generate more funds, Christal Verhamme, Whittington’s sister, has spearhead a bake sale for 10 a.m. on Saturday at Olerud’s. There will also be an Asian food fundraiser to help Whittington on Jan. 26 at the American Legion for $15 a plate, Verhamme said. His family hopes to raise enough to purchase a fifth-wheel trailer to move into.

Gina Randles, Hotch’s girlfriend, also set up a Facebook fundraiser to help pay for their dog Archer’s veterinary bills. Archer was tethered to the trailer during the fire, and suffered severe burns. Through online donations, Randles has raised over $2,500 of her $3,000 goal, which she says is a huge financial relief to be able to pay off the vet for Archer’s stay at All Paws vet in Whitehorse. Randles said that both All Paws and Haines’ Dr. Oakley are treating Archer for free, but the medicine is still costly.

In addition to the online fundraisers, locals have gotten creative in alternate ways to generate money.

On Dec. 26, resident Fiona Humiston lost her dog, bird and all of her possessions when the trailer she was staying in burnt down at Oceanside RV park.

“It’s been overwhelming in a positive way,” Humiston said. “Within a week and a half I had a new place to live, I had clothes, I had dishes.”

Salvation Army donated a week’s stay in Captain’s Choice Motel to Humiston until she got another trailer to live in, along with clothes and housewares, according to Lieutenant Kevin Woods. The same help was extended to the two other fire victims, Woods said.

Randles hosted a community clean-up at the Eagles Nest Trailer Park Saturday that drew about 20 volunteers to help pick through Hotch and Whittington’s burn sites, she said. They will be returning again this weekend. On Saturday night, the ANS hall in Klukwan hosted a spaghetti feed that raised another $700 for Hotch.

Suzanne Ashe broke her ankle during a fall last week, and is unable to work her restaurant job for six weeks until the cast comes off.

Ashe said that while the money she received through her Broken Ankle Relief Society GoFundMe page is marginal- just $125 of her $5,000 goal set- she has received help in other ways.

“The community support that I’ve received hasn’t been in money, it’s been in boots on the ground, help in bringing me food and walking my dog,” Ashe said.

Ashe’s sentiment echoes the resounding message from all donation recipients, “Twenty people over the past couple of weeks have offered to help in one way or another. “It says a lot about folks in a small town,” Ashe said. “Haines is a special place.”

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