YREC and community rallies to help support family who lost everything in a fire
Youngstown Rayen Early College is helping rally help for a family that lost everything they have in a fire.
They held a Quarter Auction at Penguin City Brewing.
On March 29th on Orange Avenue a fire broke out at a home on the city's west side.
Carian Clinkscale a mother of four made a quick trip to a corner store. When she got back her home was ablaze as smoke billowed from the burning home. Her daughter 17 year old Zallayah Johnson rescued her 11 year old brother Xzaiden from the fire and had second degree burns on much of her body.
She said when she came downstairs she thought my younger son was following here, he wasn't following her, by the time the smoke has spread all over the first floor she went upstairs and said it was so smoky she couldn't see anything, she called out for my son and followed his voice. She was able to grab him and run down the stairs, as my 19 year old was jumping out the window," Carian Clinkscale said.
A 23 year old son Brian Morris was at work at the time of the fire. His mom tells us her son was fired for taking time off. He has a job lined up now.
The second floor was engulfed in flames by the time fire fighters got there, a support dog for her 19 year old son Sanatra Johnson didn't make it. A ferret and salamander survived.
Clinkscale was laid off from FedEx and tells WFMJ News she didn't have money to pay for the insurance
with the cost of food, and mortgage and living expenses.
Clinkscale and her four children are now living with her mom and dad while she picks up the pieces.
Youngstown Rayen Early College hosted a Quarter Auction to raise money to help the family. "The Quarter Auction is one way to support our senior who just graduated," said Chris Christay, Social Worker for Youngstown Rayen Early College High School.
"Zallayah Johnson is one of our star scholars. She not only graduated from high school on May 2, but YSU on May 5, 2024 with her degrees. She received honors in both programs," Christay added.
"The family is starting from scratch. You name it they need it, so we wanted to bless them," Christay said.
The district also held a spaghetti dinner prior to this fundraiser, which raised around $1,000.
Carian's mother also talked with 21 News.
"We are just taking it a day at a time. Everyday is a new struggle, but we get up and we keep going.
I tell you this community and this district has really shown a lot of love to my babies, and I'm just so grateful. I don't know if your a mother, but to have your child look at you and say mom I've lost everything after being just laid off from her job, all I knew is I had to cry out. And I'm so thankful many people have heard my cry," Katrina Clinkscale-Thomas.
The children's grandmother started a GoFundMe site for donations called "A Grandmother's Cry."
