Community

Northampton neighbors helping out fire victims

Some of the friends, neighbors and other well-wishers who raised some $15,000 for the Fountaine family. Front row, from left: Sherry Kemp, Joyce Russell, Dolline Welch, Darlene Hobson, Robin Berkeley  and Lyn Fountaine. Back row: Tracey Fountaine, Gundula Dueperthal, Bill Russell, Jerry Hobson and Chris Sheldon. (Credit: Tim Gannon)
Some of the friends, neighbors and other well-wishers who raised some $15,000 for the Fountaine family. Front row, from left: Sherry Kemp, Joyce Russell, Dolline Welch, Darlene Hobson, Robin Berkeley and Lyn Fountaine. Back row: Tracey Fountaine, Gundula Dueperthal, Bill Russell, Jerry Hobson and Chris Sheldon. (Credit: Tim Gannon)

“Everything that’s been done for us, it’s amazing. Absolutely amazing,” Tracey Fountaine said last Wednesday after a small group of neighbors presented him and his wife with a special quilt complete with messages from 54 friends, neighbors and well-wishers. 

The Fountaines lost their Northampton house on Wildwood Trail to a fire in July 2014 and have been living in a trailer on their property ever since while work to repair their home continues.

A fundraiser organized by neighbors in October raised $15,000 for the family, said neighbors Chris Sheldon.

The quilt, which was presented to the Fountaines at Wildwood Lanes, was stitched by neighbor Beverly Perkowski. Another neighbor, Robin Berkely, sold each of the quilt’s squares, where people wrote messages to the family. Some money raised, about $300, was also given to the Fountaines, said Dolline Welch, another member of the group. A $1,000 gift certificate from Broadway.com was also donated to the family, Ms. Welch said.

“It’s a very small group of us that have done this,” Ms. Welch said.

“I can’t believe this,” Ms. Fountaine said. “This is very, very beautiful.”

Ms. Fountaine said she’s not sure she’s ever even met Ms. Perkowski, who couldn’t attend last week’s presentation. Mr. Fountaine said they plan to “pay forward” the kindness that’s been extended to them.

The Fountaines expect to move of their trailer and back into their home by mid-May or early June, Mr. Fountaine said. He sustained first and second-degree burns to the top of his head, hands and arms during the fire.

“I lost a lot of hair that won’t grow back, but other than that, I’m 100 percent,” he said.

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