Let's help Chris & Steph rebuild!
To all the donors that gave to this gofundme, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To all of our friends, family, coworkers, college classmates, neighbors, community members and more that came out and showed so much support for our family. We can not thank you all enough. Truly honored and humbled to have you all as a part of our lives.
Joey Lawton
— Thank You Letter direct from the Lawton Family —
To our family, friends, the entire Wisconsin Dells and surrounding community and beyond: We don't know where to begin! Has it really been three weeks?
You all have given so much love that words cannot explain how thankful, grateful, and appreciative we are for all of you. We are the lucky ones to be able to call you all our family and friends. Friends like this come once in a lifetime, and we are beyond lucky to have all of you on our side.
As many of you know, our peaceful lives turned upside down recently after we lost our home to a massive fire. It has been a surreal time. Thankfully our family is safe, human, and fur friends which is absolutely the most important part of this whole experience. We are trying to keep all the "what ifs" out of our minds.
To the first responders — we must begin with a special thanks to the first responders who came to our home on March 5. To the firefighters and the police of Wisconsin Dells and our surrounding towns. To every single firefighter, you are amazing people. You ran into my home when it was the most dangerous place to be. You risked your lives to save whatever pieces of our lives you could. Thank you all for leaving your family to be with mine. Not once in the entire time Chris served on the fire department and those pagers would go off, did I imagine that one day it would be our home.
Unhesitatingly, you left the safety of your home with your family to be there for my home and my family. To each person there that day, doing everything they could to help us. I may not have seen each of you, but I know you saw us. We cannot thank you enough for your heroic efforts to keep our family safe and for trying to limit the level of damage to our home.
To our family—who have given us a place to call our home while our home is being rebuilt. Without you I don’t know what we would do. You have been the love, the support, and the foundation when we have needed it most. And those from a far, we’ve felt your love and support.
To our neighbors — you watched it go down, you experienced the crazy smells that come from a house fire, and you cried with us. To every person I encountered that day, and the days after, thank you. You held me when I cried. You boxed up what little bit of things we had left. You caught me when I was overcome with grief and fear. You sent messages and love and support. You brought food and water. You saw me waiting afterwards and you handed me money. You donated clothes and shoes and toys and games. To the kids who made my children an awesome poster, the cards, thank you. You are all why we love where we live, and you are why we will rebuild to stay.
To our amazing Med Flight family — You have been our rock. You have come out from the woodwork of our lives and loved us, without mention of time or distance. You have sent us gifts, and money and gift cards and so much support of every kind possible. You were there from the night it happened and continue to be there now. Your text messages, calls, and FB messages are what keep us going. We can feel your prayers, the love is overwhelming. You were there for us during some of the saddest and hardest times of our life. The outpouring of support and love to our family has been incredible. You were there when I tried to save every little bit of what was left of my memories, and sat with me when it was thrown away, or didn’t survive the fire. You loved my children like they were your own. You gave our children a sense of normalcy. You clothed them when they left our home in nothing but pajamas and no shoes. You gave them coats to keep them warm. Shoes to keep their feet dry. You gave our Coraline back her baby dolls, my Chloe new glasses, her American girl dolls, and her iPad. You gave Camron his baby Yoda, and electronics back. Yes, this is just all stuff, but it was their stuff and that’s important to kids.
To the many others - friends, businesses, strangers —
To all the Seasonals at Holiday Shores, who have loved my mom and dad, and loved our family just the same; your love, donations, messages are appreciated.
To all the businesses in our community who have reached out and donated to our family. We are truly blessed by you all. To Fedewa Chiropractic for always willing to be available to provide relief, no matter what your day held. To amazing people at Pampered Paws who gave our big fur baby Titus a safe space during the crazy time after the fire while we put together our life so he could come back to a home. You loved our crazy dog like your own. You did this out of the goodness of your heart. Your gift was amazing. To the Chalet for doing your Sunday fundraiser donation for our family. That was so amazing, and it was the first time we had done anything as a family in 10 days.
To the wife of the firefighter who donated clothes that were exactly my style and size. Some of the clothes you sent were exact items I had in my closet that I loved. Thank you. To the mamas who cleaned out closets, playrooms and came to our side, we see you. To the caring staff at Build-A-Bear, when you asked “what was the reason for our special visit today?” My daughter told you that we lost everything in our house fire, and you gave them new bears and outfits.
To all the Mamas in my Autism support group for our daughter Chloe. You came running the night of our fire with all the things that your littles who share the same special needs as my baby to make her life better. You will never know what it meant to meet you in person in my driveway with all these things when all we had in common was a diagnosis and chat thread. You are all some strong amazing women.
Never in a million years did we think we would be on the receiving end of so many donations. Your children who gave my children their favorite toys, parted with that Barbie doll that they had loved. You should all be so proud of your children, as they possess a generosity of spirit that is truly amazing.
To Breathe Horse Therapy, you have given Chloe the ability to be around what she loves most; her horses. To Myrt and Lucy’s, who my children have a strong love for their breakfasts, thank you for all the love.
To St Joseph’s school, the Sauk County Giving Tree and local Baraboo businesses, we thank you for all you have done. To the Preschool teachers of Coraline’s school who have loved on her hard these last few weeks. To Meagan Bochco who made our new home feel like our old home full of amazing plants. To all the businesses in our community who have reached out and donated to our family. We are truly blessed by you all.
And we have so many more people to thank and will continue to do so. If you’re not listed here, it’s not that we’ve forgotten your love and thoughts and blessings on our family, we just haven’t gotten to write about it yet because there is SOO much. Thank you, over and over, thank you.
To Everyone — While we are devastated that the experience of a house fire will be etched as one of our children's biggest childhood memories, we are consoled by the fact that these incredible acts of kindness will likely be a much more vivid memory. It has been so important for them to see all the goodness in the world in the middle of such a frightening time of uncertainty.
The compassion and generosity that has been shown to us started while the fire was still burning and continues each day. It has been overwhelming. Friends brought us toothbrushes and clothing that night when we hadn't even processed the fact that we didn't have ours anymore.
We certainly have a long road ahead, but it is so comforting to know that we are not alone. We are eternally grateful for everything the community has done for us. It may be a while before we get a chance to acknowledge friends, families, and first responders individually, but know that we have seen every text, listened to every voicemail, read each email, and treasured each of the beautiful cards that have been sent. We are truly humbled by it all.
What makes a house a home is the people inside. And later this year, when we return to 911 Fawn Court, we will come back to our home with not only our family, but also the spirit of all of you who have helped us through this challenging time.
We will never forget the incredible support you have all given us. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
The Lawton Family 