A police officer pounds on your door and when you open it, yells you’ve got 10 minutes to get out before the fire hits. What do you take?
Well, if you are Kristin’s good friend Dave Olsen, you take nothing. Sadly Dave was out of town when the alert came to evacuate because of the Colorado Springs Black Forest fire was raging out of control and just about to hit his street. Luckily, one tenant, Jen Stemen was home. Rebecca and Timothy (who had literally just moved into their bottom half apartment two weeks prior) were not there. Nor was Jason Sullivan who lived in the apartment above the workshop barn.
Jen has ten minutes. She grabs everyone’s laptop and throws it in her car. Then she runs to grab her dog Cosmo, Dave’s dog Shadow, Jason’s dog Switters (all big dogs). Then she dashes to load them into her tiny car only to realize that there isn’t going to be enough room.
She has to make a split decision: dogs or car? She doesn’t hesitate (even though she had no renter’s insurance). She abandons her car. Throws the laptops, the dogs, and her just-in-case suitcase into Dave’s old truck and hightails it out of there. The house, the entire property, is completely destroyed.
TV coverage captured the 100 foot flames that was their street. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll see my posting on the day I learned that Dave had lost everything but was cheerfully moving on and even quipping about how he could now move to Boulder, Colorado to be closer to his daughter. Nothing to pack!
Every year I donate a 30-page manuscript critique with a follow up Skype session for the Brenda Novak Charity auction because my nephew has juvenile diabetes and this is a cause close to my heart. Well, this is very personal for me as well. My friend Dave is lucky. He is insured. It will cover a lot but probably not everything.
But this auction is for Jen and Jason–who had no renter’s insurance. And especially for Jen, who sacrificed to save the pets. (And please let me take a minute to say that if you are renting your place and don’t have insurance, please buy some. Today. You just never ever know. Usually it’s under $100 for a year. Well worth the cost for the absolute worst case scenario. And I hope you never have to use it!)
So if you’ve ever wanted a critique from me and you want the money to go to great cause, now is your chance. I’m really hoping to raise at least $1500.00. Deets below.
BLACK FOREST WILDFIRE AUCTION –
50-page Manuscript critique followed by a 30 minute Skype Session
Runs: August 2, 2013 thru August 7, 2013
Click on this link and bid.
And if money is tight and you really can’t participate in an auction but might like to donate a buck, you can do that too. Just click on this link. Even if you think $1.00 is not a lot, that’s $1.00 more than what they have right now and if 200 people donate a buck, that adds up.
And THANK YOU. Except for the small percentage that GoFundMe takes to process donations, ALL the money will go to Jen & Jason.
Pic 1: Me, Jen, and Dave on the day we were clearing the property
Pic 2:: the house before
Pic 3: the house after
Kristen
This is so sad and yet so uplifting as well. Friends of mine lost everything in a forest fire in the Nelson area of the South Island of New Zealand about five years ago and it’s taken them years to bounce back. This is a great thing you are doing.
All things living.
I tweeted this. Great cause, sad story. Good luck and prayers with them!
Wonderful for you to do this Kristin and good luck to Jen and Dave. It was a terrible fire. We evacuated with 7 horses, 4 cats, a dog and 2 laptops. Nothing else mattered enough to even consider compared to the animals. We were lucky, fire was stopped 1/4 mile from us, but so many lost so much. And yes, insurance is so important, good friends of mine that lost everything are devastated because of the loss of the beauty of the forest, but they’ll clear and rebuild and be ok.
Great cause!