Since 2014 Luis Guevara and Bill Meyer have been running a program they call “Cruising and Blessing” to provide direct aid to Verde Valley families in need during Christmas. The program began when the duo were in the now-defunct car club Classic Treasures along with cofounder Ruben Machado.

This year, the duo presented gifts to Sydney and Dylan Aker and their children Mason, Rowan and Adaline at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood on Saturday, Dec. 21, after the family lost all of their possessions in a home fire in Globe on May 22.

Guevara said that he came across the family about two weeks ago when Sydney Aker posted in a local social media group looking for free Christmas decorations.

“It’s been rough,” Sydney Aker said. “Some days are a lot harder than others. But our kids have been doing great. They’ve been resilient. They’re so strong … We’ve been humbled a lot by this experience. Some days suck in the rough. We all cry, and then some days, we have the best days ever, and go to the river and just try to make the best of the situation we’re in by creating fun memories and experiences with the kids.”

House Fire

Aker said that the sound of one of the family’s dogs whining at a door while they were in Globe first made them aware of the fire.

“I opened the door and there was fire everywhere,” Aker said. “So I threw the kids out and told them to run. I grabbed the baby out of her playseat that she was sitting in, and I ran outside, and my friend, she was there, she went and grabbed the hose. We tried putting it out, it wasn’t going to do anything, but we tried.”

Life in the Verde Valley

The family relocated to the Verde Valley in mid-June, and Dylan, a handyman, has been doing moving and maintenance jobs. Sydney Aker said that he can do carpentry, painting, plumbing and mechanics.

“Dylan lost all his tools, so we blessed him with a bunch of tools from a friend of ours,” Guevara said. “The boys, we bought them bikes and stuff that they could use, clothes and they ran out barefoot and [have been] trying to start all over.”

“It was a total loss,” Aker said. “Me and the kids walked away and didn’t even have shoes on our feet because we were just inside lounging. We came back later that day, and everything was gone, every single thing we own. We stayed in a hotel for a couple weeks, until somebody, I found somebody on Facebook Marketplace, and they donated us an older camper, but it’s in a nice shape, so we decided to move into that, and we’ve been rebuilding for the last couple months.”

The Akers relocated to Arizona from Indiana in 2018. The couple were reintroduced to each other after going to high school together when a mutual friend asked Sydney to jump-start a dead car battery using Dylan’s phone. Later, Dylan texted her, puzzled, asking, “Whose number is this? I found it on my phone.” After Sydney identified herself, the two began talking, quickly hit it off and have been inseparable ever since.

“Now, they’re boondocking it out by Bill Grey Road, and they have to move here and there,” Guevara said.

Aker said that a place that has full hookups for the family’s camper and five-gallon water jugs are among the family’s current needs.

“Every year we do this, we receive a bigger blessing at the end, it’s almost hard to put in words, but no amount that we spend on a family equals how we feel at the end,” Guevara said.

“There’s kind people out there,” Aker said. “There’s tons of good-hearted people, and tons of people are willing to help. So if you need help, never be afraid to ask. If I didn’t make that post looking for Christmas decorations, we would have never found these people. And it was awesome. Our kids haven’t gotten off of the bikes, and they were shocked.”

To assist the family, Sydney Aker can be reached at (928) 324-9555.