Anything Helps: Sisters host bake sale for family displaced by fire

On Thursday morning, an Idaho Falls family watched as everything they owned went up in flames.

Lindsey Adams, her 5-year-old son Shawn, 3-year-old daughter Alyssa, and her boyfriend Curtis Sermon looked on in disbelief as their Bingham Avenue home was gutted by fire.

But on Sunday, the family who lost so much is gaining even more: a chance to see how much they’re loved.

“Did you have fun at church?” Adams asked 3-year-old Alyssa in the motel room the family rented after the fire.

For Adams, things could be much worse.

Her family may have lost everything in a Thursday house fire, but since then, Adams said, something beautiful has happened.

“Some people I don’t even know are coming up to me and asking if I need anything,” she said.

Across town from the motel Adams is living in, the Linde family works together in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Elizabeth, her sister Taylour, and mom Dee all stayed up till 3 a.m. today baking all kinds of treats. Their brother Donovan decorated giant signs with multi-colored Sharpie markers.

It’s all for a bake sale to raise money for Adams — for a family they hardly know.

“We’ve been in tough situations before, and if someone would have helped us it would’ve meant a lot,” said Elizabeth Linde.

Taylor Linde started it all with a Facebook event the day of the fire, asking the community for donations.

“They don’t have the necessities that you need just to survive every day,” said Taylor Linde.

Elizabeth Linde came up with the bake sale idea, all in the name of loving their neighbor.

For Adams, it means everything.

“If nobody had stepped up like they did, we’d be really struggling right now,” she said. “I’d probably be on the street corner right now with a sign that says, ‘house burned down, anything helps.'”

That term, ‘anything helps,’ isn’t lost on the Lindes.

“Just us being able to do anything, even if it’s not much, is a big deal to us,” said Elizabeth Linde.

The Linde family is gathering donations for Adams, her boyfriend Curtis and the kids.

They said they have a lot of clothes and mostly need household items like pots and pans.

Taylour Linde is organizing donations and can be reached by e-mail at lindekids@aol.com