The Crosland Park Neighborhood Association, residents of the Northside community and employees of a local business came together to help a family whose home was destroyed by fire May 11.
Dale Couch, the vice president of the association, and Norman Dunagan, the founder of Dumpster Depot, gave Hosea Roundtree and Willa Berry monetary contributions to help them with expenses at an association meeting Tuesday. Fire, smoke and heat destroyed most of their belongings at their home on Crosland Drive.
"Thanks again from the bottom of my heart," Roundtree said after the meeting. "I really appreciate it."
Berry, who was born in Aiken but was reared and lived in New York most of her life, said she was "surprised and shocked" by the association's kindness.
"I'm not used to things like this happening from the community," she said. "In New York, things like this don't happen."
Gary Yount, the association president, said the group's responsibility is "to step up" to help neighbors in need.
"It's that simple," he said. "It's also important for people to see that although there are incidents that give Crosland Park a bad name and reputation, this neighborhood isn't bad. There is hope here."
Dunagan and Dumpster Depot are part of that hope. Beginning July 1, Dumpster Depot, which repurposes waste to reduce landfill dumping, will partner with the City of Aiken to increase recycling in Crosland Park, which, in turn, will help create jobs for residents of the neighborhood with the company.
"I want to work so that people will have pride in their community again and start looking for positive things in Crosland Park," Dunagan said. "The first thing we want to do is to have as many people as possible get blue bins and begin recycling. We want to educate them that the reason we want them to have a blue bin is because it's going to create jobs for people in Crosland Park."
Dunagan said his employees took the initiative to collect money for Roundtree and Berry.
"During our leadership meeting, I let my team know that there was a family in Crosland Park who had a severe loss, and I wanted the team to know that we would love to collect some money for them," Dunagan said. "Each of the supervisors reported back that every single team member brought in money after getting paid on Friday. It just makes me proud to be their leader."
Roundtree and Berry plan to stay in Crosland Park and already have found a rental property while they assess how to proceed with repairs to their damaged home.
"The community has been great," he said. "We're definitely going to be here. The help that the neighborhood has given us means that there is love here. It's wonderful."
Couch said the American Red Cross has been coordinating relief aid for Roundtree and Berry. To make a monetary contribution to help with their expenses, call the Red Cross at 803-641-4152.
A native of Aiken, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. He joined the Aiken Standard in September 2014.
