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WXYZ viewer donates generator to help family

Posted at 6:18 PM, Feb 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-26 18:24:34-05

When Paul Olivieri's wife saw 7 Action News at 5 on Thursday, she saw our story on Ryan McCuen.

He's the Clinton Township firefighter who paid the Stone family's $1,000 power bill. Since they'd fallen behind on payments, their power had been shut off.

The family has been trying to raise money to purchase a generator since their son, Troy, has muscular dystrophy and is on a ventilator.

Since our story aired, many 7 Action News viewers reached out to us offering to donate a generator and the installation.

We returned the message of the first person to contact us.

Today, Paul Olivieri, owner of Lakepointe Electric, went out to the Stone home and told them he's donating an automatic home standby generator and the installation.

"It feels good to help," says Olivieri.

It's a generous gift that means everything to Christy Stone. She and her husband have 5 kids. Two of them have muscular dystrophy. Keeping power on for Troy's ventilator is a matter of life and death.

"Thank you so much! We'll feel so much safer. This means everything," Stone told Olivieri.

Installation of the generator is scheduled for next week. She says it's hard to put into words the gratitude she feels for everyone who has reached out to help her family. "We thank them all," says Stone.

Since stories of the firefighter's generosity spread, Stone's GoFundMe page has raised more than $7,000. She says now that a generator is being donated, her family will use that money to buy a lift van for her boys.