A family known for its generosity to the community over the years now finds itself in need.
That was after a fast-moving fire Sunday afternoon leveled the family home of Roark Sizemore, who, as a highschooler, founded Pantry Plus More.
The food distribution service delivers daily food staples, holiday meals and back-to-school supplies to disadvantaged households across the region.
Sizemore, 24, who lived in the Suncrest area home with his mother, Christine, and a sister and her young son, was asleep in a basement bedroom – as the upper floors filled with smoke.
He was the only one home at the time of the 1 p.m. blaze.
“My mom and my nephew were out shopping,” he said.
“I was pretty lucky I was downstairs. I got out through the basement pretty quick.”
For now, the family is in temporary lodging, Sizemore said. The cause of the fire, he said, appears to be electrical.
“It was a pretty old house.”
Meanwhile, Max Byron, his longtime friend from elementary school through college, was just as quick in setting up a GoFundMe account for the family.
Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/q59dg7-house-fire-relief-fund?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1 to offer a monetary donation.
In the meantime, Byron and other friends said, furniture, toys and books would also be appreciated – along with clothing in XL for women and men, or in sizes 8-10 or 10-12 for boys.
“They’ve done so much for the community,” Byron said Tuesday.
“This is our turn.”
As a kid, Byron spent a lot of time in the now-ruined house, he said.
“I logged a lot of hours there,” Byron said. “They’re such a good family, and they pretty much lost everything.”
The home, Sizemore said, was the meeting spot for his friends while growing up.
A certain matriarch may have been reason, the son said, chuckling.
“I used to always say my friends liked my mom more than me,” he mused.
She’s definitely the person who motivated his call to service, her son said.
While a student at Morgantown, he collaborated with his advisor, Tom Bloom, a former educator-turned Monongalia County commissioner, to launch Pantry Plus More, which is headquartered in Westover.
And that’s because food insecurity – the state of simply not having enough to eat, to sustain oneself nutritionally – is still an issue, Bloom said.
Even in relatively prosperous Mon and Morgantown, the commissioner added.
Echoing Byron, Bloom said he hopes the community can come forward for this family.
“Christine and Roark have given so much in our community and have never asked for anything in return,” Bloom said.
Roark Sizemore, whose plans include law school, said he couldn’t be more moved by the outpouring.
“I’m very heartened,” he said.
“I don’t know how we’d be getting along, without the love from this community.”
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