- January 20, 2025
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Annette Massey helped set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for her longtime friends Marshall and Jenna Mears and their 8-year-old son Buddy on Easter Sunday, thinking it was a small gesture she could make to help after the Mears' Flagler Beach home burned down in a fire the day before.
Flames had engulfed the wood-frame house at 2043 S. Daytona Ave. the evening before Easter, forcing firefighters from the Flagler Beach Fire Department, Palm Coast Fire Department and Flagler County Fire Rescue to fight defensively to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring homes. Little remained of the house or its contents, including the Mears' cars and essential documents.
With Robyn Lafferty, Jenna Mears' sister, Massey set an initial GoFundMe donation goal at $10,000, hoping to help keep the Mears afloat until insurance money kicked in —which, Massey knew from past experience with hurricane recovery, can take months.
By the afternoon of April 14, when the fundraiser closed, people had donated $21,570.
"That just seemed like something I could do I thought would be small, and it wound up being huge," Massey said. "We just kept thinking, 'What if this happened to us? What would we want?' Just to know that people care."
And people clearly did: 279 people donated through the GoFundMe link, and the GoFundMe post was shared approximately 1,500 times, including by local businesses Captain's BBQ and the Beachside Laundromat.
Then there were the other donations — the Easter basket provided the morning after the fire, a bicycle, clothes, gift cards and toys, books donated by a teacher. Many people also offered housing; for now, the Mears are staying with Lafferty in Ormond Beach.
Marshall Mears' employer, Bozart Ford in St. Augustine, has also provided the family with rental vehicles to drive until they're able to replace their cars, Massey said.
"It's more than enough for them, and they feel comfortable that their insurance company is being very helpful, so they're very, very thankful," Massey said. "I just want to say how grateful I am and how grateful they are to the whole community. They're just hoping that through this whole devastation, that they can give back to their community."
