A Trying Time

When Donna Fogle and her family found themselves in a trying time of loss after a fire burned their home, the community stepped up to help

Sometimes it takes flames, disruption, and destruction to reveal a community’s true heart.  When a fire destroyed the Fogle family’s Wallace home in early 2018, the community stepped in to help.

The fire burned for six hours before local firefighters brought it under control. In that short period, one Marlboro County family lost a valued home, family keepsakes, cherished memories and two beloved pets, but gained the support of a community that would help them move forward into the new year.

It was mid-afternoon on Jan. 4, and Donna was picking up her two daughters, Danielle and Amber, and son, Tyler, at school when a neighbor called to say that the family’s home was on fire. Her husband, Christopher, was at work and safe. When she arrived home, their house was engulfed by flames.

Marlboro Electric Co-op members, through “Operation Round Up,” gave the family a check to help them get their lives back together.

Co-op members can round up their monthly electric bill to the nearest dollar and these additional funds are placed in a trust and used to assist neighbors with emergency support such as food, clothing or shelter. Volunteers from Marlboro and Dillon counties comprise the MEC Trust Board, which decides how Operation Round-Up funds are used.

For more information on the MEC Trust, please visit our website.