ST. CLAIRSVILLE — After a house fire damaged the Zhu family’s home on Dec. 26 the Ohio Valley community banded together to support the family through ordering meals at their family restaurant Zhuzi.

When Zhuzi employee Kaleigh Carpenter saw the family needed help she quickly took to social media posting that the family had a house fire and strongly encouraged residents to stop by the restaurant to place orders or donate to the family.

“When they told me about the house fire, my first response was just like I have to get the word out there so that the community can help,” Carpenter said. “I know our community really likes to help people and they don’t have any family around here so I knew I had to get that going for them.”

Carpenter said that after posting on her personal social media account, she shared it to various pages which led to countless people sharing the post to further get the word out.

“I made the post on my account and just shared it with my friends. But then I also shared it to the St. Claresville Facebook page and everyone started responding to it,” Carpenter said. “Most of our regulars live in St Clairsville. A lot of the donations were coming from people who frequent the restaurant very often and they just wanted to give back and help out.”

She added that when residents began donating to the family they were just putting it into the tip jar so the tip jar became the designated donation collection area.

“I’m honestly not even sure how much money was donated to the tip jar, because people were wanting to donate money, and I just had them put it in the tip jar and it just all went to the family,” she said. “A representative in the manager department of Sam’s Club came and she said that they do community outreach things. So she was able to take $500 from that fund and she bought $500 worth of household items for the family.”

Carpenter added that Sam’s Club donated pillows, blankets, jackets, soaps, toothbrushes and things that the family would need while they currently stay in a hotel.

She said that in addition to the donations from Sam’s Club, residents also donated household items and clothing to the family throughout the past few days.

Owner and operator Hui Zhu was not at the restaurant during the interview but called her husband and co-owner Yonggui Zhu who was working in the kitchen during the interview to express her family’s gratitude for the support it has given to them in their time of need.

Yonggui added that his family is already brainstorming of a way to express their gratitude to the community once the family is able to get back up on their feet.

“It’s very important in our culture to give back once you get help. So we’re going to be trying to think of things we can do to give back,” he said.

Carpenter added that the house is still standing but has severe smoke, soot and fire damage.

“They’re still trying to figure out if they’re going to be able to rebuild and remodel it from the damages or if it’s going to be a total loss,” Carpenter said. “They’re waiting for insurance to do all of that, but it’s still standing. Just everything in the house was damaged from the smoke damage and soot.”

She added that the family believes it no longer needs anymore clothing and household items due to the extensive donations they have received.

“But if people still want to come in and show their support by placing orders, we would love that,” Carpenter said.

Zhuzi is located next to Starbucks in the Ohio Valley Mall Plaza and is open noon until 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.