TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – As many Leon County families get ready to head back to school, one Tallahassee educator was preparing to open a new learning center for children at her home.
Instead, she’s now picking through what was supposed to be Inspire Learning Center after a fire destroyed the building before it could open.
Fire destroys Tallahassee educator’s dream learning center(Julia Miller/WCTV)
Kentara Hall has been an educator for 11 years. After spending the last three years with Leon County Schools, she decided to take a leap of faith and open her own learning center.
Hall said everything was ready to go.
School supplies had been moved in, her application had been submitted to the Florida Department of Children and Families for license approval, and families were already planning to send their children there.
“Their desk, their tables, their curriculum, their papers, even down to the crayons that they were going to use to color and do their activities,” Hall said.
But before the center could open next month, Hall said lightning struck her home.
“The lightning strike had caused the power surge, and it caused a little fire inside of the attic, and the firefighters told me they could see where the fire had jumped from connection to connection,” Hall said.
With no one there to notice, Hall said the fire quickly spread through the home.
Fire destroys Tallahassee educator’s dream learning center(Julia Miller/WCTV)
The fire destroyed nearly everything inside, including supplies for the learning center.
“For me to get to the finish line and it to be all gone, in the blink of an eye from nothing that I could control, was really hurtful when I put my all into this, taken that big risk,” Hall said.
Despite losing nearly everything she owned, both personally and for her business, Hall said she is not giving up.
She still hopes to open the doors to Inspire Learning Center one day.
Hall has set up a GoFundMe to help her family recover after the fire.
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