Estell Manor Teen Uses Essay Prize Money to Help Neighbors After Fire

Friday, December 12 2008 @ 07:25 pm EST

Contributed by: CBrining

From the Atlantic City Press Published: Friday, December 12, 2008

By REGINA SCHAFFER Staff Writer, 609-272-7211

ESTELL MANOR - By the time Jane Ellenbart smelled the smoke, it was too late. She walked from the kitchen to the back bedroom of her Eighth Avenue home Nov. 2, opened the new oak door and saw the bright flames. They stretched from floor to ceiling.

Ellenbart screamed. She rushed to wake her sister, who was sleeping in the next bedroom. She gathered her three dogs and two cats, left the house and immediately called 911.

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"It was just pandemonium," said Ellenbart, 55. "There were firemen there, state troopers. They started the investigation right away. They think it was electrical."

Ellenbart and her husband, Charles, also 55, could only watch as their Estell Manor home burned.

"Right now we have beams," said Jane Ellenbart, a nurse out of work on disability. "Everything was gutted, everything was taken out. The smoke damage was so bad. Everything had to be thrown out. There's a trailer company ... we're living in a trailer in the front of the house." Katie McGarry, a teen who lives on the same street but did not know the Ellenbarts, was shocked to learn that her neighbors' house had burned.

The 15-year-old won a $500 cash prize three years ago when her seventh-grade essay about helping others won a contest. McGarry spent the first $100 right away, buying teddy bears, books and gift certificates for a Vineland family who also lost their home in a fire. She held onto the remaining $400 for three years.

"Since the essay was about helping, I was going to use the money for helping," said McGarry, a sophomore at Buena Regional High School. "I was keeping my eyes and ears open for what was unfortunately going on. Then this happens."

McGarry took her $400 and bought $100 gift cards from Wal-Mart, Railroad Deli, Brunos Restaurant and Gregorio's Produce and Deli.

"Here was this young girl who I didn't know," Jane Ellenbart said. "She just walked up to me with her mother and introduced herself. I was still shaken up. You don't know what's going on, you know?"

"She said, 'I wanted to give this to you,'" Ellenbart recalled.

"I found out that their entire house was (destroyed) and I said, 'I need to help,'" McGarry said. "It's one of those feelings you get. I'm happy that it happened when I had the money."

"It was like an angel came out of nowhere," said Charles Ellenbart, who works as a refrigeration mechanic at Bally's Atlantic City. "It was really an intense moment. It was really special."

McGarry's mother, Renee, said she was amazed her daughter spent her entire prize on others.

"I'm so proud of her," Renee McGarry said. "That money wasn't earmarked for anything. She could have gone to the mall and bought whatever. She said she wanted to hold onto the money, to use it to help someone local."

Since McGarry's generous gift, the Ellenbarts have received even more help from their community - food, offers of a place to stay and other assistance - and they can't express their gratitude enough, they said.

The Ellenbarts still plan to celebrate Christmas in their trailer.

"We've got a couple little decorations outside, a tree inside," Charles Ellenbart said. "No one got hurt."

In fact, the Ellenbarts consider themselves lucky.

"It's exactly what they tell you," Jane Ellenbart said. "Your life changes in a minute. God took care of us all the way through. We're just so thankful. It's one day at a time."

E-mail Regina Schaffer: RSchaffer@pressofac.com