With Endless Thanks

Dear Friends, Family and Community,

As many of you may know, one of Bonnie Lea Farm’s barns was recently hit by lightning and burned to the ground. Miraculously, no humans or animals were injured during the fire. On behalf of the entire DeMayo Family and Bonnie Lea Farm, I would like to thank the many people who have come forth to assist us through this traumatic event. We greatly appreciate the response from the Williamstown, Pownal and Clarksburg fire departments. Without their rapid response and great care, we could have easily have lost two adjacent barns or even the house. The arrival of the fire fighters brought us such relief during a chaotic time.

In addition to the fire departments, we would like to thank the community for the many expressions of support and love. The outpouring of generosity has been a humbling experience. We are blessed to have such special friends and family.

With all that is in front of us we could not have imagined making such progress to date. It is due to the wonderful volunteers of all ages and their great support that we have been able to clean up the site enough to start building again. With thanks to Jim Galusha and his guys the site is level! With thanks to Ron Baldwin and committed volunteers, we have started rebuilding! Working nights and weekends, a small barn is almost complete. This barn will provide some immediate storage for winter hay and replace 4 of the 15 stalls that were lost. As we move forward, the rebuilding will continue in stages as we are able. As you might imagine, there are hundreds of people to thank and the list is growing! We will try to keep you posted on our web site Bonnielea.com.

Thank you to all who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to recover from our loss. Your words of hope and inspiration have helped us pick up the pieces as we move into a new chapter at Bonnie Lea Farm.

With gratitude,
Lisa DeMayo
On Behalf of the entire DeMayo Family and BLF

Cadet is Back in Action

With great thanks to the many, Cadet is happy to be back in a new stall in roughly the same location as his stall in the barn that burned. As a result of everyone’s efforts, Cadet is eating again and settling into his new stall.

For those of you who missed the story, Bittersweet Cadet is our 34 year old Morgan stallion. Cadet stopped eating after we lost the 3rd barn to fire caused by lightning.

A barn, approximately one-fourth of the size of the barn that burned is being constructed with the help of many volunteers. The effort is being led by Ron Baldwin, of Baldwin Carpenters and Builders, who is helping to create stalls and storage area for hay before winter arrives. The rebuilding would never have been possible without the assistance of Jim Galusha and his team that led the cleanup effort. With the help of the large equipment, those of us with rakes, magnets and gloves were able to sort through the remains more quickly.

The outpouring of generosity has been a humbling experience. People have continued to call, volunteer, send food for the workers, etc. Thank you to all who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to try to recover from our loss.
Bittersweet Cadet