Editor's note: Jordan Huffer used to be the assistant multimedia editor at the Daily News.
In just a little more than 24 hours, one student has helped raise more than $4,000 for assistant professor Tom Price and his wife Pam Price after a Friday night fire claimed the entirety of their home.
Jordan Huffer, a senior photojournalism major, knows what it’s like to lose everything in a flash of flame; her house burnt down when she was 18 years old. It was the memory of that fire, and her relationship with Tom Price, that led her to create a Go Fund Me page to try to relieve just a little bit of the pain of losing a home.
“I know how much [support] means at a really sucky time and someone needs to step up and do that for them,” Huffer said.
Tom and Pam Price are currently being intubated at Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis to return oxygen to their system, their son, Fletcher Price, said. The two were pulled from their home by firefighters late Friday night as their home blazed around them; however, their injuries were mostly related to smoke inhalation.
Huffer was lucky enough not to be injured in the fire that destroyed her home, but she did lose almost everything she owned.
Her family wasn’t alone though. Her father was John Huffer, former Ball State photo services coordinator, and Jordan said people from all across campus gave their family support.
“We had just an influx of donations and gifts from everyone from the university,” she said. “Something people don’t understand is, my dad was a 30-year employee of the university and Ball State is very much a family.”
Huffer said it is that sense of familiar bond that is a major reason 77 people have donated $4,390 to the Price’s, at time of publishing, pushing well beyond her original goal of $1,500.
“I feel like people are naturally inclined to want to help and sometimes you don’t really know how to go about it but a Go Fund Me page in general just kinda streamlines the process,” Huffer said.
When Huffer checked the Go Fund Me she said she was shocked to see just how much people had donated.
“I was insanely surprised because I just thought it was just going to be us, the students, and maybe if we are lucky we could get faculty and staff,” she said. “But I’m getting names that I don’t recognize … I was so happy that this got out to such a large group of people.”
One of those names Huffer may not recognize is that of a former student of Price’s, Alivia Brybak.
She learned about the fire from a news story that was making the rounds on Facebook.
“I remember my heart racing, hoping that it wasn't anyone that I knew,” she said. “After clicking on the link, I was heartbroken to realize it was one of the professors I was closest to — Tom Price.”
She decided she wanted to find a way to help and was actually in the middle of looking for family contacts to make her own donation page when she found Huffer’s Go Fund Me.
“I was in the process of trying to find family contacts on his Facebook to ask if it would be okay for me to [donate], but was so happy to find one already created and people already pulling together to help him,” Brybak said. “The power of social media is astounding.”
She said it was Tom Price’s generous giving of himself that prompted her to donate without question.
“Why did I donate to the page?” she said. “Because Tom spent my entire undergraduate study and beyond helping me, no questions asked, no reward for him — just because that's the kind of guy he is. It was only fitting that I try to help out in any way I could during his moment of need. “
Brybak’s and the other donors' money will go to help the Price’s pay for things that are often taken for granted when you have a home, Huffer said.
“One of the things that people just assume is that insurance is going to cut the check and your life is going to go back to normal in a couple weeks,” she said. “No, you are living in hotels for a few months, you can’t cook, so you have to eat out every night, and you have to pay to get laundry done … just all the little things you do at home that you have to pay for somewhere else.”
It’s not just things like food, shelter and appliances that are gone when a fire takes everything a person owns. Huffer said one of the biggest things that go missing are those “creature comforts” — things that just make life feel normal.
“Sometimes, you need something that to kinda help you feel better about life,” she said.“I can’t wait to give them the money and tell them about the people that helped them. I’m excited that people have found this for the family and to tell them that people love and care about them.”
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