Community gathers donations for family of motel fire victims

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- 

Family, friends and the community are working to help the Curtis family after six family members died in Saturday's motel fire at Cosmo Extended Stay Motel. 

Samuel Curtis and his one-year-old daughter where the only ones in the family who survived. 

Right now, Countryside Academy is accepting monetary donations on behalf of the family. The school says checks can be made out to Countryside Academy with "Curtis Family" written in the memo. 

Monetary donations can be dropped off or sent to the school located at 4800 Meadowbrook Road in Benton Harbor. It is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday- Friday. The school says Curtis has requested that they handle all financial donations. 

A friend of the family has also created a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses. That donation page can be found here.  

Danita Bailey, who is the cousin of Samuel Curtis, says the money will also help Curtis take care of his surviving child.

Bailey says material items are needed as well. She is working to collect the following items:

For one-year-old girl:

• Size 12 month and larger clothes
• Size 5c or larger size shoes 
• Size 4 and 5 diapers
  

For Curtis:

• Size 6x shirts
• Size 54 pants
• Size 12 shoes
• Size 7x or 8x gym shorts