70 Foster Kids Staying in Ex- Penthouse Exec's Fla. Mansion

'They hadn't showered for a week and you saw how excited they were' after Irma
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 14, 2017 11:00 AM CDT
After Irma, 70 Foster Kids Stay in Ex- Penthouse Exec's Mansion
A destroyed home is shown in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Wednesday in Big Pine Key, Fla.   (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

In the wake of Hurricane Irma, 70 foster children found themselves staying in some pretty fancy digs. After Marc Bell got a call from the SOS Children's Villages Florida—on whose board he sits—telling him there was no power at the facility and the children who live there had nowhere to go for shelter, the millionaire and former Penthouse exec had a simple answer. "I said, 'Bring them here,'" Bell tells CBS 12. And that's how the kids ended up staying in Marc and Jennifer Bell's $30 million, 27,000-square-foot home in Boca Raton, the Miami Herald reports.

"They were hungry. They were tired," Bell tells CBS. After living in an emergency shelter and sleeping in a gymnasium, "they hadn't showered for a week and you saw how excited they were" to arrive at the Bells' home. The couple did more than provide showers: They arranged for the girls to get manicures, and they've had entertainment, including a balloon artist and a singer/guitar player. Marc Bell started a GoFundMe Monday, the day he got the call from the shelter, to raise money to help reopen the facility. Until then, per some old articles the Herald found about the Bells' home, the kids will be enjoying a game room, home theater, basketball court, library, gym, and even a pool with waterfalls. (More Hurricane Irma stories.)

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