Fitness center organizes fundraiser for flood victim’s family

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — The community is rallying around the family of last week’s flood victim in Soddy-Daisy.

I Am Fitness recently opened off Hixson Pike. But something else has been on the mind of owner Heather Penny and instructor Tammy Moore.

“I mean it is heartbreaking because we live here in Soddy-Daisy. So when you here of someone passing away like that you just automatically think of the family and what you will do. You just put yourself in their position. We were heartbroken,” Penny said.

When Penny heard that Tina King Thorpe lost her life in last week’s flood, she wanted to organize a fundraiser to help her family raise money to bury her.

“So we decided to host a fundraising day where we are going to have a bunch of our classes where people can come, they can pay to do the classes, they can do $5 for one class or $15 for all day,” Penny said.

When Moore found out the family was out raising money themselves, she told Penny.

“They had a great sudden loss and they should only be focusing mostly on that and if the family is going to do it themselves, at least someone like us could help out, so that is what we wanted to do,” Moore said.

King Thorpe’s granddaughter, Kaylee Blakemore, says she was a kind person.

“Just how loving she was. She would care for everybody. She would do anything for anybody,” Blakemore said.

Blakemore is thankful for the fundraiser and all of the community support.

“So it really calmed us down a lot and gave us more at ease while we were dealing with the pain and stuff, but we will get through it. We have so far, which is really great,” Blakemore said.

For Penny and Moore, they say it is the least they can do.

The fundraiser will be on Sunday, October 7, at I Am Fitness from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. If you aren’t interested in a fitness class, you can still make a donation.

For more information about the event, click here.

If you would like to help the family, go to their GoFundMe page.