The family of a fallen firefighter who served on the Hardy Fire Department and attended school at Highland is asking the community for help.
Thomas Fling was 19-years-old when he lost his life in a head-on collision Feb. 11, 2020.
“He was going to school at Highland and was on the fire department in Hardy. He had been a junior firefighter since the ninth grade and was going to school at Westside before he switched to Highland,” Mindy Summitt, Fling’s aunt said. “He had lived with me for two years before he was killed and helped take care of his siblings and his uncle who had dementia and has since passed away.”
Summitt said the family has held some fundraisers, but the pandemic came just a month following the death of her nephew.
“We still owe about $6,000 for his funeral. We have held different fundraisers and raised over $1,000 which we put toward funeral costs. When he was killed, we went straight into the pandemic and it made it very difficult to raise funds to help with his funeral expenses,” Summit said.
The family has an account set up at FNBC Bank and donations can be placed into the Thomas Fling Memorial account at any FNBC location.
“The way we have the account set up is people can donate and then the bank is going to stop accepting donations when we get to the amount to cover the funeral expenses. They will write a cashier’s check directly to the funeral home so, none of us will handle the money,” Summitt said. “It will all go directly to the funeral home.”
Summitt said the funeral home, Gregg- Langford Bookout Funeral Home in Jonesboro has been very gracious and has been accepting payments but with the funeral taking place more than a year ago, the family is anxious to pay the debt owed.
“We know everyone is struggling right now, but we thought, if we could start a campaign and get 6,000 people to just donate one dollar, then we could put this to rest and move forward,” Summitt said.
Summitt said Fling has older siblings and a twin brother who is mentally challenged.
“TomTom had big dreams. He was just awesome and took care of everyone else. He loved mentoring kids. He was a lot of kids’ first bike ride or trick or treating. He wanted to do something in this area because he wanted to stay here and make something for kids to do,” Summitt said. “He told me once he was thinking about selling hotdogs or sandwiches and wanted to make a junior firefighter program for kids starting in kindergarten; you know, to give them something to do and help keep them out of trouble as they got older.”
Fling was a member of the ROTC program, Hardy Fire Department and previously a junior firefighter at the Bono Fire Department.
He was just awesome. He took care of people and took care of his uncle who had dementia.
Donations may be made at any FNBC location and for more information or to speak to the family directly, Summitt said she can be contacted on Facebook through her account Mindy Fling.
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