Community Leaders Home Destroyed by Fire

Last week, two of our own Community Leaders Derris “Dee” & Claudia Ross lost their home, dog (Prince) and all of their possessions in a tragic house fire. Derris & Claudia Ross, newlyweds, are both familiar faces to the city of Indianapolis because of all the work they do in the communities around the cities of Indianapolis & South Bend, Indiana.

The Ross’s have been a vessel to people in the city and its youth for over half a decade. This year has been an extremely challenging time for the couple already, after Dee lost his best man, which was his older brother, David, weeks before the couple said “I do”.

Dee is a well respected community leader here in Indianapolis that founded the Ross Foundation, which is a non profit that addresses the problems that his community faces such as crime, poverty, fair housing, and bridging the gap between resources and services, etc. Dee also suffers from two chronic lung diseases and lupus. All of his medications and medical devices were lost in the fire.

Claudia is a native of South Bend, Indiana who graduated from South Bend Washington High School. After studying abroad and teaching secondary social studies, she founded Youth Global Perspectives (YGP). YGP has provided underprivileged youth from Indy and South Bend opportunities to travel to various countries (Spain, Cuba, etc) and states (Oklahoma, Georgia, etc).

We are asking that you please consider donating and supporting this family that is selfless and has given so much to our families, youth, and communities.

The proceeds of this GoFundMe will be used to help offset the costs they are facing right now, and will help them get their lives back on track, after such a tragic traumatizing event. Unfortunately, they will never be able to replace the things that money can’t buy such as their memories, family heirlooms, photo albums, and most devastatingly, their beloved dog, Prince. Lets try to alleviate the stress of this misfortune.

We want to respect Mr. & Mrs. Ross’s space and allow them the proper time to grieve and process through this tragedy. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the following email below :
[email redacted]