{"id":161838,"date":"2025-06-06T02:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T02:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161838\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T02:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T02:54:10","slug":"london-nonprofit-kicks-off-ongoing-storm-relief-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161838\/","title":{"rendered":"London nonprofit kicks off ongoing storm relief fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LONDON, Ky. (WKYT) &#8211; Michelle Baker and her sister Chasity Whited said the night of May 16 was one they will never forget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This is because their sister Samanthi\u2019s London home was destroyed by the tornado.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe were here in probably 5 minutes. It was just surreal, something that you really feel like it\u2019s a movie scene,\u201d Whited said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The two tell WKYT while they were relieved to find their sister was okay\u2014they were devastated to learn their cousin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkyt.com\/2025\/05\/20\/names-laurel-county-tornado-victims-released\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lisa Fortney was among those killed during the tornado<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cShe meant the world to us. She was more like a sister than a cousin. And I don\u2019t want anybody to forget her,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Baker said seeing people from London and beyond helping survivors pick up the pieces inspired her to create their non-profit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/london-laurel-county-farmers-market\/london-ky-strong-candlelight-walk-for-tornado-victims\/1609754070412496\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">London KY Strong<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSo all that just kind of played in my head and played in my head and I really thought you know I want to do something. Like I want to be able to do something to kind of help with what\u2019s going on now, but we don\u2019t know when this is going to happen again,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/7Q22NG66SFG4BCCZJFMQ43MG6E.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"200\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The organization will be a hub for all things storm relief, now and in the future, including an ongoing storm fund.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cA lot of times when you\u2019re raising money for a certain event, you are knocking on doors, you know, and that\u2019s not been the case,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">At 7 p.m. on July 12 at the London Farmers\u2019 Market, the nonprofit will host a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of the tornado.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The pair said this is only the beginning for London Ky Strong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSo every year, like these people that lost their lives, I want people to remember those and they will always be honored at every event we do from here on out,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Baker said next year, London Ky Strong will honor the victims with its 5k on May 17th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WKYT. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, Ky. (WKYT) &#8211; Michelle Baker and her sister Chasity Whited said the night of May 16 was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,68076,257,68077,50155,16,15,68075],"class_list":{"0":"post-161838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-ky-strong","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-nonprofit","14":"tag-tornado","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wkyt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114634167324531265","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}