Community unites to help Islamic Center of Lake Travis after fire

Rasa - While authorities continue to investigate a fire that destroyed a building under construction by the Islamic Center of Lake Travis, many in the Austin community are uniting to help rebuild.

News ID: 426514

Date: 13 January 2017 - 21:21

RNA - While authorities continue to investigate a fire that destroyed a building under construction by the Islamic Center of Lake Travis, many in the Austin community are uniting to help rebuild.

Kay Zazy, a member of the Islamic center, is still in shock about the loss. But in the midst of the tragedy, she’s found a silver lining.

“We got a lot of phone calls, Facebook, a lot of people out there try to help us,” Zazy said.

In the past two days, dozens of Austinites have been reaching out, regardless of their faith.

“These are our neighbors, these are our friends our family members and so we are here to help”, said Mindy Gulati, president of Lake Travis Progressives.

After hearing the news, Gulati quickly created a GoFundMe page on behalf of the Lake Travis Progressives.

“This is something that's important to this community and we want to stand by and say ‘we will help you,'" said Gulati.

So far more than $30, 000 have been raised between two different online platforms.

“Random people,” said Zazy. “When we see a Facebook message we get so excited, we are really really grateful.”

The goal is to get to the $400,000 that had already been invested in the building before the flames.

“The loss is the same ... it's significant ... no matter what the cause was,” Gulati said.

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