Car wash held to pay for baby's funeral expenses
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1 of 2By Henry A. Barrios / The Californian
A car wash is held at Hotties Salon and Spa at 2020 North Chester Ave. Tuesday to raise funds for the funeral for Jordyn Smith, an almost 2-month-old baby who died Sunday.
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2 of 2By Henry A. Barrios / The Californian
Chris Allen holds a sign on North Chester Avenue for a carwash to raise funds for the funeral of Jordyn Smith, an almost 2-month-old baby who died Sunday.
click to collapse
By THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN
Chris Allen held a sign aloft by North Chester Avenue Tuesday morning and waved for motorists to pull over and get their cars washed.
He and others were determined to raise as much money as possible to pay for the funeral expenses of Jordyn Smith. The nearly 2-month-old infant from Bakersfield was pronounced dead at Kern Valley Hospital over the weekend.
With temperatures rising and the heat already pretty stifling by 9 a.m., Allen said he was prepared to stand outside as long as he had to.
"Until we're too baked to hold signs up or there's no cars" was how he put it.
Allen and a couple dozen other friends of Jordyn's parents laid out buckets filled with water as they prepared for their first customers outside Hotties Salon and Spa.
Later in the day at the car wash, a woman who was identified as Jordyn's mother but refused to give her name thanked family, friends and strangers for their love and support.
"My daughter was very healthy, she was precious, she was perfect, she was our angel," she said. "We loved her to death literally, and she unfortunately was called home too early."
Kern County sheriff's detectives are investigating Jordyn's death. Deputies reported Jordyn's parents were camping in the French Gulch Campground area and had slept with the baby in the bed of a pickup in a truck tent.
The parents discovered the infant wasn't breathing Sunday morning and drove her to Kern County Fire Station 72 at 4500 Lake Isabella Blvd., deputies reported. The infant was then taken by ambulance to Kern Valley Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after she arrived.
The baby's grandmother, Pattie Hufft, has the family is "distraught and devastated."
The Jordyn Smith Fund has been opened at Citizens Business Bank, Hufft and Jordyn's mother said. The bank confirmed donations can be made to the fund and checks should be made out to Morgan Watson with a note designating the money to the fund.
The fundraising car washes continue with one at Froehlich Signature Homes at 8501 Brimhall Road Wednesday, another at Hotties Salon and Spa at 2020 N. Chester Ave. Thursday and a fourth wash at Original Road House Grill at 8490 Rosedale Highway Friday, Hufft said. The car washes start at 9 a.m.
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