YOUNGSTOWN Fire starts a wave of generosity

'Thank you for keeping my family together,' a fire victim tells his co-workers.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Bobby Reber, his wife, Carrie, and their four children have been overwhelmed by the generosity of Reber's co-workers after a fire that forced them out of their home and destroyed most of their possessions.
"I want to tell every one of them, 'Thank you,'" said Reber, 35, a lube technician at Youngstown Buick-Pontiac-GMC Truck in Boardman. "I didn't know so many people were that generous. It's just a miracle. Their hearts are so big."
"For all these people to take their time, their energy, their income to supplement us, it's amazing. I can never thank any of those people enough," Carrie Reber said. "What more could we ask for?
"This Christmas, I just want us to all appreciate what we do have, and think about that a little more often," she added.
What happened
The Rebers returned from a laundry to their East Judson Avenue home the evening of Nov. 9 to find firefighters at the scene of a blaze that started when a candle on the kitchen table ignited a curtain. Nobody was home when the blaze erupted, and there were no injuries.
The family, which had no renters' insurance, put their few salvageable possessions in the garage, only to find that thieves helped themselves to many of them.
After the fire, the American Red Cross paid for the family to spend two nights in a Liberty motel. At that point, the Rescue Mission's family unit was full, and Reber said he feared losing custody of the children if the family became homeless. Highway Tabernacle then paid for two additional motel nights.
Reber's supervisors and co-workers raised about $3,000 in cash to pay for three additional weeks in the motel and for the initial rent and security deposit the family needed to move into its current house on Steel Street. Reber's message to his supervisors and co-workers: "Thank you for keeping my family together."
Donated items
The co-workers also donated furniture and drapes for the Steel Street residence, where the Rebers live with their daughters, Brittney, 10, and Sidney, 2, and sons, Vincent, 8, and Derrick, 6.
"Every night, they have a truckload for us of furniture, clothes, curtains," appliances, dishes, silverware, linens, and toys for the children, Reber said of his co-workers at the dealership, which employs almost 200 people.
"We thank them for what they are giving us because that's really thoughtful," Vincent said.
"I want to tell people that helped us, 'Thank you.' God bless them," Brittney said.
Among the items Reber's co-workers and the dealership's customers donated were a large sofa bed, tables, televisions, a refrigerator, a stove, PlayStations, numerous games and toys, new clothing for Reber and his wife, food, restaurant gift certificates and cash. At Thanksgiving, Reber's co-workers bought the family a ready-made turkey dinner, which they enjoyed in the motel.
Reber compares his good fortune to that of the character Bailey in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life," which he said was his favorite movie while he was growing up. In the movie, Bailey didn't ask for help when he suffered difficulty but was amazed at how many helpers he had.
As for his ordeal and his co-workers' response, Reber concluded, "It made me see that I have an extended family. If there's ever any situation I would fall into, I know that I have a big family to help me when I fall down."
Co-worker's comments
"Anytime you hear of something like that happening to anybody, especially when you know that it could happen to you, you just want to do whatever you can to help," said Matthew R. Colla, a sales and leasing consultant with the dealership. "Just helping out another human being -- I think we all have that in us," he said.
"Bob's kind of a special guy. He's always got a good thing to say. He's always got a smile for everybody, and I think everybody liked Bob," said Chris Rutledge, Reber's supervisor.
"You see a guy down on his luck. He's got a wife and four kids, and he's got nowhere to go. Everybody just worked together and tried to help out. It's just like another family member. Everybody just banded together. It was overwhelming. Stuff's still coming in," in the form of donations from employees, their friends and relatives and customers, Rutledge added.
Besides helping the Rebers, the dealership has been active this month in the Salvation Army "Angels" campaign, in which employees buy presents for children, and as a collection site for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.