National Clothesline

After one family suffered from a devastating loss, a nearby cleaners tried to help them pick up the pieces.

In early December, a house fire took the home and life of Russell Keith Markland, a resident of New London, PA, who left behind his wife, Barbara, and a nine-year-old son, Ryan.

After hearing news of the tragedy, local drycleaning business Frankford Cleaners — located in the Longwood Shopping Center on Route 1 — sought to help the Markland family by collecting donations at their plant.

“They’ve lost everything so we’re accepting toiletries and clothing. Barbara Markland is a size XL in tops and XL in pants. Ryan Markland is shirt size 12, pants size 10 in little boys sizes,” said plant manager Christina Pannell. “We’ll accept gifts, too. If people want to donate items such as Christmas gifts and cash donations and also stuff for the house.”

Pannell, who has been manager for about seven years now, lived just five minutes away from the Marklands, who lived on Saginaw Rd.

Before he died in the fire, Russell Markland had worked at the Super Fresh located right next door to Frankford.

Within a couple of days of the fire, the local community had responded in kind to the plight of one of its own families.

“We’ve actually had a lot of donations already,” Pannell added. “So far, we’ve received mainly cash, but two people donated TVs. One guy donated a brand new 20-inch plasma TV. Another guy donated a slightly used TV which still had the remote and papers and all the stuff with it.”

Super Fresh employees also chipped in heavily with cash contributions. Even people who don’t regularly go to Frankford made a special visit.

“I’ve actually been surprised to have so many people come in, left and right,” Pannell said. “A lot of people who aren’t even customers — who have just seen the article in the paper — brought stuff in.”

This year isn’t the first time Frankford has “adopted” a local family. Last year, the business sought to help two kids whose mother had just passed away. Both attended the same daycare as Pannell’s son.

“The father was in the service,” she recalled. “The daycare asked that everybody donate toys or clothing to give as Christmas gifts, so we attempted to do just the toys.

Some people brought them in wrapped and with the kids’ names on them. The ones brought in that weren’t wrapped, the girls up front and I wrapped them and handed them out.”

Not only did local residents respond with about 100 toys, but another $650 in cash was donated, as well.

Because Frankford had helped the family last year, a relative of the Markland family called up Pannell to see if they could help them this year. Originally, the business had been too busy to think about helping a family this year, but once Pannell heard about the Marklands, she agreed to help immediately.

Many other local groups and business have also stepped up. The New London Presbyterian Church has accepted donations on behalf of the Markland family, as well as the Aldrich family who also lost their apartment and all of their belongings in the same fire.

A local bank has established a benefit fund for the Marklands. Individuals can make donations to the “Ryan Markland Education Fund” at any office of National Penn Bank or The Peoples Bank of Oxford, a division of National Penn Bank.