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Compassion wins after East Cleveland family loses everything in fire

Generosity has been showing up in the form of donations for a family who lost everything in a fire

East Cleveland firefighters started it all by sending out a plea for help for a family who lost everything in a fire. That spirit of generosity has now snowballed into incredible support when they needed it most.

Compassion has been showing up at our front door at Channel 3 for a week, in the form of donations. And on that snowy Friday last week, a story we never saw coming showed up as well.

Last Wednesday, the Perkins family's home and everything they owned went up in smoke.

Jamera and Alfred and their 3 kids weren’t home at the time.

Alive and grateful, but with nothing besides the clothes on their backs. Then, this social media plea from East Cleveland fire fighters came AFTER they put the fire out.

Firefighter Tom Buth said. “We're going to need to see if we can get some support for them." And we here at WKYC decided to help as the donation site.

New clothing for the family will be collected through Friday, Jan. 19, at WKYC’s downtown studio, 1333 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland. All items must be new, and may be dropped off on weekdays between 8:30 am and midnight.

Since then, the good stuff has come rolling in.

Boxes and bags of new clothes for the kids.

Even toys to replace the Christmas gifts that went up in smoke.

"To see people support you and be so generous and open their hearts and show you so much compassion. I’m just so GRATEFUL for that,” said Jamera Perkins.

Gratitude.

Gratitude.

Gratitude.

Megan and Greg Clifford get it. When they pulled up to the WKYC studios with their donation, Greg said, “Help out when you can. We saw the story. We were passing a store and thought why not pick something up. Every little bit helps."

The Cliffords aren’t even from here.

They are here from Virginia, waiting out hopeful days since August to be close to Cleveland Clinic.

"He's waiting on a transplant," says Megan.

It was a story we couldn’t have seen coming. And yet it pulled right up with 2 compassionate people inside.

Gratitude!

How many of us were grateful today for all of our insides that work? Greg, waiting on an organ donor, is grateful for each day.

"It takes a lot longer than a kidney or liver because of the amount of organs I need. I need stomach, pancreas and intestines. And I'm a difficult match because I'm a B positive blood type,” Greg says with a smile, still.

Megan leans over to explain, “I say he just has to be positive."

We are being positive with the Cliffords now, hoping their random act of kindness comes back 10 fold.

And just think. It all started with a firefighter who chose compassion after the fire was out.

Greg knows the gift that will save his life will come at the expense of someone else’s loved one...someone who chooses life with organ donation. but his story is so worth sharing.

Would you please share it now?

A GoFundMe account has also been set up for the Perkins and we are taking donations for them until Friday 8am-midnight.

https://www.gofundme.com/fire1508

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