Community rallying behind family of 8-year-old who died Tuesday
The Michiana community is mourning the tragic death of eight-year-old Chelsie Hill. One ‘school mom’ has created a gofundme page to help the family cover expenses.
Chelsie Hill fell off a gate at her family farm and died Tuesday.
“We are all just heartbroken and devastated to hear about that. It was just a total shock and hard to believe,” said Madison Elementary School 4th grade teacher, Jane Hostetler.
It hits especially close to home, because Jane Hostetler taught one of Chelsie’s brothers.
But as they’re digesting the news, the Madison School Community is rallying behind the Hills.
“I thought what would I want if that happened to my kid. I mean, not that that can’t help anything, but I thought maybe there could be funeral expenses or maybe they have debt that someone didn’t know about, or maybe they need a family vacation,” said Carrie Lozmack, said a Madison ‘school mom.’
So, Carrie Lozmack created a gofundme page Thursday.
“I set it up yesterday, and after a couple hours, there was $300, and I was like oh my gosh! $300!” said Lozmack.
By Friday, the page had raised over $7,000.
Carrie says Chelsie’s mom is so grateful.
“She just said that they have trouble accepting help from people, but if we felt let as a community to help her, then they would gladly accept it,” said Carrie.
They’re also accepting prayers as the community remembers Chelsie.
“She was a wonderful child, and she won a mental attitude type of award here at Madison,” said Hostetler.
“She was always wearing cute little pants and little flats, and I always thought, she is so fashionable, like she is such a cute little girl!” said Lozmack.
She says it could have happened to anyone’s little girl, so that’s why Carrie stepped up.
“Like this is a pretty tight-knit community, like Madison School is, and I know that if something like that happened to one of my kids, that the community would do the same thing for me, you know?” said Carrie.
If you would like to contribute to the gofundme page for the Hills, click here.
Funeral services for Chelsie Hill will be held at Living Faith Fellowship Church at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.