Teacher receives support from community after tree falls on home in Scottdale
ATLANTA - Brook Hewitt Moore has been teaching for decades and earning a lot of love and respect from students and their parents in the Scottdale community.
She had no idea how far they'd go to help her until these last couple of days since a fallen tree destroyed her home.
"I'm still in shock and still processing all of this," Moore said.
Ever since this huge tree crushed the Moore family home in Scottdale, everyone, and I do mean everyone, has rallied around a beloved school teacher named Brook Hewitt Moore.
"She teaches me acting and photography," 7-year-old Julianne Gordon said.
"I gave her $5 from my tooth fairy money."
Julianne Gordon's donation is one of many to come since her mother Alison Gordon established a GoFundMe page to help the teacher who lost just about everything.
That's a big problem when you're a contract teacher who works from a home office that's now filled with broken tree branches.
Donors contributed more $5,000 in the first 24 hours.
"If something happens to somebody in our community, we come together to help them. It's just the way that we are and Brooke has been a part of our community for so long. I felt like I needed to act," Alison Gordon said.
Brook and her husband David said the tree came down just after 4:30 Sunday morning.
I looked back in the bathroom and the whole ceiling had completely caved in right behind me.
No official word from the insurance company about whether the home will be salvaged or demolished, but Brook says her faith in her students and the Scottdale community is stronger than ever.
"I just teach because I love teaching and I love kids. I never did it for anything other than the love of teaching I had no idea that so many people loved me back," Moore said.
"We are deeply humbled."
The roof is in really bad shape and the house is still standing but not structurally safe so the school teacher and her husband will be staying in hotels and Airbnb's for while.
If you'd like to help the Moore's, just visit our website fox5atlanta.com for more information.