Young cancer patient's smoke-damaged home gets free cleaning

Restoring apartment, faith

Art Schulte, right, accepts clothing handed him by Jessica James so Schulte, of CRDN Textile Experts can take the clothing to have professionally cleaned. Schulte is working with Ivan Turner of Disaster Brigade USA Restoration Service and his crew to clean up an apartment and clothing that received smoke and soot damage after a neighboring apartment burned. James' daughter, Reese Werner, 4, is battling cancer and would struggle in her compromised condition to breathe and recover with the toxins in the apartment.
Art Schulte, right, accepts clothing handed him by Jessica James so Schulte, of CRDN Textile Experts can take the clothing to have professionally cleaned. Schulte is working with Ivan Turner of Disaster Brigade USA Restoration Service and his crew to clean up an apartment and clothing that received smoke and soot damage after a neighboring apartment burned. James' daughter, Reese Werner, 4, is battling cancer and would struggle in her compromised condition to breathe and recover with the toxins in the apartment.

Four-year-old Reese Werner, who has cancer, recently completed another round of chemotherapy in St. Louis. However, another terrible thing happened to her family over the holiday weekend.

Reese's family lives at Senate Court Apartments, where a fire occurred Monday afternoon. The family's apartment suffered a lot of smoke damage. The walls, floors, furniture and all of their clothing was covered in soot and smoke.

Soot and smoke are bad for anyone - but especially for Reese, in her condition with a weakened immune system.

The family doesn't have renter's insurance, so they would have to clean it themselves or pay out of pocket, although every dollar goes to caring for Reese. They reached out to the Red Cross, but since they weren't affected by the fire itself, the organization couldn't provide services beyond a cleaning kit.

This is where the "miracle" comes in.

"My babysitter remembered that I used to work for a disaster restoration company and called me to see if I could give them some tips on how to effectively clean the unit," said Melissa Dunn, marketing manager at Huber & Associates. "With the experience I have in these types of situations, I know that you can't clean that amount of damage, at least not good enough to be healthy for Reese."

Dunn immediately thought of her old boss, Ivan Turner of Disaster Brigade USA Restoration Service.

"He is a good and generous man that I knew would help in some capacity or another, so I called him," Dunn said. "He immediately said, 'Of course, I want to do whatever I can!'"

Turner told Dunn he had a friend in the disaster restoration dry-cleaning business out of St. Louis who owed him a favor and this sounded like the perfect opportunity to cash it in. Then he and his crew would work on the walls, ceilings and hard surfaces.

"I don't know the actual dollar amount this service would add up to, but in my experience we are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars," Dunn said.

Turner, who worked with his crew Thursday at the apartment, said Reese's story tugged at his heart because he has dealt with a family member going through cancer treatments and knows the emotional and financial stress that brings.

"Eighteen years ago, my youngest daughter was diagnosed with cancer," he said. "She had a large brain tumor and several on her spine. They said she wouldn't live past 5, but she's now 20 and still with us. We had a great outpouring of support and help from the community. So when I got the call from Melissa about Reese's family, I said, 'I'd be happy to help and this is our way to give back.'"

Jessica James said her daughter Reese returned from St. Louis earlier this week and is staying at another residence until the apartment is cleaned up.

"I was stressed about trying to get things cleaned up, along with everything else going on in our lives right now," James said. "You don't realize how many good people are in the world until you - as sad as it is - go through something like this. They all come out at the right times."

A fund is still active to help the family with expenses for Reese's treatment. Donations can be sent to: Team Reese, C/O Jefferson Bank, Attn: Morgan Tellman, 700 Southwest Blvd., Jefferson City, MO, 65109.