Angel Who Cares
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2009.03.20 Today's Current News - ***NO DISCUSSIONS HERE PLEASE ***
Community contributes to Haleigh's family funds
Donations sustain the search, and creation of an information center.
Story updated at 6:29 AM on Friday, Mar. 20, 2009
<snipped>
For more than a month Sheffield and Cummings have turned to separate support networks. Neither parent is working while the search for their daughter continues.
Kim Picazio, a South Florida lawyer who helped secure and spruce up the building for Sheffield, is directing the creation of a trust that will accept donations to help support the 23-year-old mother, whose home is in Baker County.
Money donated to the trust would be used for expenditures such as rent, food and gas as long as Sheffield stays, Picazio said.
For weeks, Putnam County businessman Jamie Watts has overseen a similar account set up for Haleigh's father and Ronald Cummings Jr., her 4-year-old brother.
Watts said less than $5,000 has been given to the Haleigh Cummings Relief Fund at Bank of America. The bank will not provide information on the account, citing privacy reasons.
Less than $1,000 has been spent on the insurance and other bills, Watts said. Set up by the bank under rules outlined by Florida law, money from the account cannot be used in support of Haleigh's mother because she was not living in the house at the time of the disappearance.
Watts said any withdrawals from the account must be approved by him and be used for a specific bill and certain expenses. In the past week and a half, donations have trickled off, he said.
Since the beginning only a handful of small checks came from out of state, with most of the money coming from within Putnam County.
A local church placed donation jars in the area and donated to the account.
"The lady didn't know what to do with it," Watts said. He said he told the church he could only accept money for Cummings. He did not know if some of the cash went to Sheffield.
"No one wants to take sides," he said. "This is a little community we live in. It is very tiny. When something like this happens, it sends shock waves out to the community."
In Baker County the sentiment has been similar.
Co-workers of Sheffield's mother, Marie Griffis, raised $670 to help the family. Although the money was stolen from the school bus depot where Griffis works, it was recovered.
Throughout the past month, money and other contributions have come in at camps where the families were set up, said family members. It might be $20 for gas or a food donation.
Cummings' grandmother, Annette Sykes, said the family kept a journal of donations.
"We wrote the names and addresses down," she said.
After money in the Cummings account is no longer needed, the remainder will be sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Watts said.
Picazio said any that is left in any account set up for Sheffield would be distributed in a similar way.
Article:
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/me...ommunity_contributes_to_haleighs_family_funds
Community contributes to Haleigh's family funds
Donations sustain the search, and creation of an information center.
Story updated at 6:29 AM on Friday, Mar. 20, 2009
<snipped>
For more than a month Sheffield and Cummings have turned to separate support networks. Neither parent is working while the search for their daughter continues.
Kim Picazio, a South Florida lawyer who helped secure and spruce up the building for Sheffield, is directing the creation of a trust that will accept donations to help support the 23-year-old mother, whose home is in Baker County.
Money donated to the trust would be used for expenditures such as rent, food and gas as long as Sheffield stays, Picazio said.
For weeks, Putnam County businessman Jamie Watts has overseen a similar account set up for Haleigh's father and Ronald Cummings Jr., her 4-year-old brother.
Watts said less than $5,000 has been given to the Haleigh Cummings Relief Fund at Bank of America. The bank will not provide information on the account, citing privacy reasons.
Less than $1,000 has been spent on the insurance and other bills, Watts said. Set up by the bank under rules outlined by Florida law, money from the account cannot be used in support of Haleigh's mother because she was not living in the house at the time of the disappearance.
Watts said any withdrawals from the account must be approved by him and be used for a specific bill and certain expenses. In the past week and a half, donations have trickled off, he said.
Since the beginning only a handful of small checks came from out of state, with most of the money coming from within Putnam County.
A local church placed donation jars in the area and donated to the account.
"The lady didn't know what to do with it," Watts said. He said he told the church he could only accept money for Cummings. He did not know if some of the cash went to Sheffield.
"No one wants to take sides," he said. "This is a little community we live in. It is very tiny. When something like this happens, it sends shock waves out to the community."
In Baker County the sentiment has been similar.
Co-workers of Sheffield's mother, Marie Griffis, raised $670 to help the family. Although the money was stolen from the school bus depot where Griffis works, it was recovered.
Throughout the past month, money and other contributions have come in at camps where the families were set up, said family members. It might be $20 for gas or a food donation.
Cummings' grandmother, Annette Sykes, said the family kept a journal of donations.
"We wrote the names and addresses down," she said.
After money in the Cummings account is no longer needed, the remainder will be sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Watts said.
Picazio said any that is left in any account set up for Sheffield would be distributed in a similar way.
Article:
http://www.jacksonville.com/news/me...ommunity_contributes_to_haleighs_family_funds