SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A U.S. Army veteran and his family lost their Shepherdsville home and all of their belongings in a fire over the weekend, but thankfully, the family is OK.
Mark and Wendy Wales and their 13-year-old daughter were the only three people living in the home off Deatsville Road in Bullitt County. They were not home at the time of the fire.
"My sister said around midnight she got a call from a neighbor in front of them and said, 'Your house is fully engulfed in flames,'" said Ellen Bischoff, Wendy's sister. "I'm just so grateful that they're alive, because they could very easily not be here today."
Bischoff said her sister's family is only left with the clothes on their backs. From the damage to the home, it's clear there is not much that can be saved. So to help the family during this difficult time, especially with Christmas just a few days away, Louisville's Veteran's Club is stepping in.
"We're not primarily a financial assistance, emergency assistant organization in the way of money, but we do have specific donors who every so often donates a pretty substantial amount of money to help with those things should they come up," said Jeremy Harrell, founder and CEO of Veteran's Club.
Harrell said earlier in the week, one of those donors gave a large gift to the club.
"We got those funds on Saturday, and our team started deciding how we were going to find veterans in need during this time and really time to bless their families for Christmas," Harrell said.
The next day, he learned about the Wales and their house fire and discovered Mark is a fellow veteran.
"So I thought right away that that's what we're going to use that money for," he said.
Harrell met with the family Sunday and gave them several gift cards from the donor's funds. He said he'll continue to keep in touch with the family as they begin picking up the pieces and moving forward from this tragedy.
"His whole family lost everything," Harrell said. "They lost the home, everything inside the home, everything they had for Christmas. We just really wanted to kind of soften the blow, so to speak, and we're going to stay connected with this family."
"My sister is so overwhelmed all she can do is cry," Bischoff said. "It truly restores my faith in humanity after 2020 has been a horrible year for so many people."
Bischoff said it's too soon to say if the family will rebuild on the same property. She said the family will be in need of clothes, appliances, furniture and everything else to start over.
If you would like to donate to the family's Go Fund Me page, click here.
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