The morning after her friend Kelly Murray and her daughter Sloane died in an accident on Connecticut Avenue, Sara Knoll was at the Murray home in Chevy Chase comforting Murray's husband Sean and five other children. Twenty-four hours after that, Knoll and others were on the Internet, setting up a support system for the Murray family that has generated an overwhelming response.

As of Monday afternoon, more than 440 people signed onto a Web site that helps organize various opportunities to help the family through at least the end of the next school year in June 2010. These opportunities include bringing the family dinners, organizing housecleaning services and donating to the Murray Girl's Education Fund for the five daughters.

So far, the Web site, www.lotsahelpinghands.com/c/615521, has generated enough support that the family's housekeeping and meal needs have been met through Dec. 23 this year. Visitors to the site can look at calendars and see which tasks and days the Murray family needs help.

Kelly Murray, 40, and Sloane Murray, 7, were killed when a tree branch fell on the minivan they were traveling in on Connecticut Avenue near East West Highway on June 26. Four of Murray's other daughters, Megan, Maeve, Kieran and Quinn were also in the vehicle but survived. Murray was formerly a psychologist at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and was teaching clinical psychology at Loyola University in Baltimore when she was killed.

"They're just speechless. They've just been so grateful and so thankful and overwhelmed," Knoll said of the Murray family's reaction to the show of support in the three weeks since the accident. Knoll, a Washington, D.C. resident, has a daughter who attends school at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament church in the District with two of Murray's daughters.

Chris Jacobs of Chevy Chase, another of the Web site's organizers, said the support came so quickly that within 20 minutes of the Lotsa Helping Hands site going active, the family's meal needs three times a week were met through Dec. 16 this year.

Members of the Chevy Chase Recreation Association swim team and families with students at Chevy Chase Elementary School have joined the effort, she said, along with family friends and neighbors.

"There was a need to get this site up. There were a lot of people who wanted to help this family," she said.

A similar Lotsa Helping Hands site was also established to help the family of Michael and Ami Susan Petrucelli, who were displaced from their Bethesda home along with their triplets Aiden, Bricen and Coleson after a house fire on Dec. 3 last year. More than 1,000 people offered goods and services for the family, whose triplets were hospitalized with injuries because of the fire.

Other members of the site have also offered to help with babysitting and lawn services. Jacobs said more tasks will be posted on the site as they are needed.

"People that didn't even know them are reaching out and asking how they can help," said Cindy Hart, a Murray family friend and Web site organizer.

Those interested in giving to the Murray Girl's Education Fund can mail donations to Ted Hart, c/o Smith Barney, 1050 Connecticut Avenue Northwest, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036.

To sign up to help the Murray family with various tasks, visit www.lotsahelping

hands.com/c/615521