8:44am | The Greater Lakewood Chamber of Commerce has set up an account with Gateway Business Bank to help pay for traveling and funeral expenses related to the death Lt. Cmdr. Jonas Kelsall, a Navy SEAL killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan earlier this month.
Kelsall’s father, John, is the Chamber’s president and chief executive officer.
Jonas perished along with 29 other U.S. military personnel, 22 of whom were members of SEAL Team 6, including Jonas’s childhood best friend, Chief Petty Officer Robert James Reeves. (Read this New York Times profile on the pair.)
“The family … [went] to Louisiana to go to [Robert’s] service, then they went to [Washington,] D.C. for Jonas’s service, then back to Louisiana for a hometown service for Jonas. So they had excessive travel expenses,” explains Leigh Clausen, vice-president and regional manager of Gateway Business Bank. “[The travel fund] has been growing by leaps and bounds. I have no idea what their travel expenses ended up being, but I know [the fund] is going to make a dent.”
“The community has been very generous,” reports Joy Janes, a Chamber board member and one of the fund’s co-architects (along with Cathy Gies). “We’ve already been able to give John a check for $5,000, and he was flabbergasted when he received it. He said, ‘This is some community.’ He was really touched. … I know he hopes the other families that have suffered a loss like this get that kind of support from people in their communities. He almost feels guilty that people have been so generous … not just in terms of donating money, but the cards, the communications to him and his family. It has really helped them get through this part of their mourning.”
Janes says that funds collected will go toward not only the travel expenses — including those relates to Jonas’s sisters travels from Texas — but also costs related to a large memorial service.
Should the donations exceed the family’s expenses, Janes says that this money be donated to the Navy SEAL Foundation, per John Kelsall’s requested.
Gateway Business Bank is located at 4146 Woodruff Ave., Lakewood, CA 90713. The name of the fund is “Fundraiser for the Kelsall Family.”