SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Two communities in southeastern Minnesota are wrapping their collective arms around an Amish family that is mourning two young daughters in a crash Monday.
A horse-drawn buggy carrying 7-year-old Wilma Miller and her 11-year-old sister Irma collided with an SUV driven by a 35-year-old woman on Fillmore County Road 1 near Spring Valley. The girls were killed and two siblings - a sister and brother - were injured.
The funeral for the girls on Thursday at 9 a.m. is expected to draw 1,000 people or more, and businesses and residents of nearby Spring Valley and Stewartville have launched a mission to feed the supportive crowd. Some Like it Hot Cakes and Catering is among those leading the effort.
“Everybody is so sad, they want to help, and this is a way they can help and make them feel like they're involved and helping, said Some Like it Hot owner Suzanne Gardner. "The whole community is just, Spring Valley is just full of love and they’re showing it, and it’s just been amazing.”
So far, the community has donated money for sandwiches, coffee, fruit, water bottles and other items. These donations helped feed those attending the children’s wake Wednesday.
A GoFundMe set up to help the Miller family with funeral and medical expenses has reached more than $64,000 as of Thursday morning.
Fillmore County locals say Amish horses and buggies on the road are a normal sight in the area, and the crash highlights a growing problem of drivers not paying enough attention to their surroundings, according to KAAL-TV.
“They’re our neighbors and if they’re on the road, they are coming to do business with us. We just have to watch out, drive slowly,” Spring Valley resident Julie Broadwater told the broadcast outlet. “Highway 1 is a curvy road; a lot of areas are no passing zones.”
Sumner Township is just over 18 miles southeast of Rochester.
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11's newscasts. You'll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
- Add KARE 11+ on Roku here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Roku Channel Store.
- Add KARE 11+ on Fire TV here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Amazon App Store.
- Learn more about the KARE 11+ app for Apple TV in the Apple App Store.
- Learn more about KARE 11+ here.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist: