Please Help Family With New Van After Engine Fire

On Tuesday, September 17th, our family van caught fire during traffic.  Six of our children (ages 1,3,4,5,7 and 8) and I were inside the vehicle when I noticed the smell of burning rubber and flames coming from the hood. I reacted by turning the van off immediately and shouting for the kids to get out and run to the nearest building's sidewalk. I remember seeing my eight-year-old son unbuckle himself, his nearby seven-year-old brother and four-year-old sister. I was just able to get my one year old when I looked back at the blames and see them starting to cover the windshield. As I gathered everyone, we ran towards a church. Looking back, the driver side seat was then in flames. We are so grateful that everyone made it out before the flames quickly engulfed the rest of the interior.  Brandon Christan Church helped us by allowing us inside their building and offering us food and water after speaking with the police and fire department. They were even kind enough to contact DCF and help provide us with replacement car seats since there was no time to remove them from the burning van. We are so thankful that no one was hurt.

   Now we are in need of a new family van as soon as possible so we are able to get the children to ballet class, doctors appointments, my three-year-old is starting speech therapy, VPK, and school.  We cannot afford to replace it so suddenly as we only had money saved for basic repairs. We are setting our goal for $10,000 but anything is extremely helpful. If you can, please assist us in replacing our family vehicle so the children can return to their everyday lives and routines. I will continue in posting updates every time there is one!