Residents reach out to family

Charleston County leaders and residents are coming together to find a home for the Lewis sisters.

The community's outpouring of support came in response to a story in Sunday's Post and Courier about Kalyn and Amy Lewis, the sisters who took the top two prizes in the county's spelling bee just two days after they were evicted from their public housing apartment. The family of six has been living in a low-budget motel since Jan. 20.

The story touched one police officer so deeply that on Sunday she drove to every motel in Mount Pleasant until she figured out where they were staying. She paid for a couple of nights and left the family $40. Another stranger took the family to Momma Brown's

Barbeque for lunch Sunday and then gave Anikia Lewis, the girls' mother, $100. One man simply dropped off $300 in an envelope at the motel's front desk.

"It's been wonderful," Lewis said.

The family's motel room has been paid up for the next week, but the Lewises still don't know where they will stay after that. Some high-profile community members -- including Charleston Mayor Joe Riley; Chris Fraser, a school board member and commercial real estate firm president; and Sean Moore, owner of the Charleston-area Five Guys franchise -- have started working on a lasting solution. A case manager from East Cooper Community Outreach will coordinate larger-scale efforts to help the Lewis family, such as their search for a home and a full-time job for Anikia Lewis.

"This is a real opportunity for the community to step up and help this family be successful," Fraser said. "This is about a long-term solution for stability."

Melvin Middleton, the Lewis girls' principal at Sanders-Clyde Elementary School, said he sees this as a chance to not only help this family but also other families before they get into a similar situation. He'd like to see more done to prevent families from getting into this predicament.

State Rep. Wendell Gilliard, D-Charleston, made enough copies of the story to give to every lawmaker in the House and Senate, and he plans to pass those out today. He hopes the story will help push forward his bill that attempts to address the problematic way that families are evicted from public housing, he said. Anikia Lewis could do nothing but watch as movers carted everything her family owned to a curb, and neighbors immediately began to scavenge through the piles.

"You can't live in a humane society and do inhumane things," Gilliard said.

He met with Lewis on Monday and plans to help her, too.

Kalyn and Amy said they had a good day at school Monday, describing it as "normal." Even still, one of Kalyn's friends gave her $50 after seeing her in the newspaper, and Kalyn said she was grateful. Kalyn said she hopes her family will be able to move into a house.

The newspaper has received more than 60 phone calls and e-mails from people who want to help the Lewis family. A teacher at Laurel Hill Primary School dropped off boxes of canned goods at the motel and has organized a coin drive among the school's kindergarten classes to benefit the family. One woman offered the girls free college coaching and counseling.

"I just want to thank everyone," Anikia Lewis said. "And thank God."

To help

• To make a financial contribution to the Lewis family, make checks payable to "Charleston County School District" and in the for/memo section at the bottom, indicate that it's for the Lewis family. You can mail those to Charleston County School District, Office of the Superintendent, 75 Calhoun St., Charleston, SC 29401.

• To make a donation to one of the Lewis children's college fund, contact Bank of America.

• To offer help in finding the family a home or Anikia Lewis a job, contact Sandra Brandl at sbrandl@eccocharleston.org or 849-9220.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.