Neighbors in Mount Vernon host turkey bowl fundraiser for fire victims
MOUNT VERNON (WABC) -- In the spirit of giving, Mount Vernon residents are stepping up to help 200 people who can't return home for Thanksgiving after a fire ripped through an apartment complex.
The fire on Cottage Avenue last Sunday left hundreds with nothing for the holidays.
The community stepped up even further than bringing a mountain of donations by having a charity football game.
Firefighter Sandy Turbercio was there on Sunday night in the bucket of a tower ladder battling the five-alarm fire.
"It's hard, but to know you're in the community helping these families and younger kids, parents, single parents, they're working people," Sandy Tiburcio, with the Mount Vernon fire department, said.
Sunday's early morning fire on Cottage Avenue displaced nearly 100 families right before Thanksgiving.
The Doles Center received an overwhelming amount of donated items, to the point where officials had to tell people to stop donating them and instead make monetary contributions or give gift cards like one organization chose to do.
"I personally haven't seen giving like this since 9/11, so it's been uplifting and heartwarming to see," Police Chief Marcel Olifiers said.
Part of the reason why the impact is being felt so deeply is that even though Mount Vernon is a city, it's more like a small town.
Many of the players and first responders grew up in the town and live here.
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