Community dinner raises funds for local family

Tyrone McLeod has been a builder much of his life, the elaborate ramp he installed at a Morris Street home across from The Slider Café is a prime example.

He has built even more goodwill here over time.

That was much in evidence Friday when La Conner service organizations held a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to benefit McLeod and his family, which last winter lost to fire the house he had labored five years to build on Swinomish Reservation.

The event raised several thousand dollars with donations still coming in from those unable to attend.

One of the benefit's corps of volunteers estimated around $4,000 was raised on Friday.

"It's amazing how much the community has come together to help out," McLeod's mom, Linda Rumbolt, told the Weekly News. "People have come up to me and given me money or said: 'I have a check for him.'"

Rumbolt said members of the La Conner chapter of Soroptimist International contacted her soon after the fire to suggest a fundraising event.

"These folks just got after it," she said.

The La Conner Rotary and Kiwanis clubs pledged their support right away as well.

La Conner Schools culinary staff and Soroptimist volunteers began working in the elementary school kitchen around 1 p.m. Friday, four hours ahead of serving the meal.

"They've been so busy, they're all so awesome," Rumbolt said.

McLeod's pastor David Hensman and another friend, Jacob Parker, came in support from Stanwood-Camano Island, where the McLeods have rented a place since the fire.

McLeod and Hensman share familial roots in Canada's most easterly province of Newfoundland and Labrador. And it's their shared faith that's helping McLeod overcome trauma inflicted by the blaze.

"I don't know exactly what I'll do," McLeod said while finishing his dinner and dessert alongside daughter Skye, age six and son Jorn, 13, who delivered a heartfelt message of appreciation to diners. "I'll just have to trust in Jesus and start over somehow."

McLeod isn't inclined – at least for now – to build by hand a replacement house.

"It's a huge financial investment and takes a lot of time and energy to do something like that," he said. "I don't know it I can do it again."

There's one thing of which McLeod is certain, however. He won't give up his goal of securing a permanent home for himself and his children.

"What I tell myself is that I've always managed to come out on top," McLeod said. "I'm not going to lay down and cry about it.

"Well," he added, flashing his trademark smile, "I did cry about it, but I didn't lay down. I sat on a rock."

The custom 2,100 square foot home McLeod had basically completed but not yet moved into on Indian Road – it featured an indoor climbing wall and large walk-in pantry – went up in flames last January. Fortunately, it was while he and his two children were away. Swinomish Police are investigating what caused the blaze.

McLeod, who has worked as a roofer, lost the tools and equipment he had stored inside the house while out of town in mid-January. Painting the exterior was the next scheduled step.

Seeing the remains of what had been his dream home burnt to the ground has been a painful image for McLeod and family members to bear.

What they saw at the elementary school gym Friday, however, was a sight to behold.

"It was so wonderful," Rumbolt said, "to see what a beautiful community we all belong to."