A Kincardine family displaced by a house fire last month is thankful for all the help they've received getting their lives back in order.
On March 16, the Cooper family — Kurt, Courtney, Lily, and Levi — lost their North Line home to a blaze. No one was there at the time, so fortunately the family and their dogs, Scooby-Doo and Bear, were all unharmed. But all of their possessions were lost.
For weeks following, the family of four lived out of a hotel, receiving help from friends, family, and strangers alike as they rebuild.
Courtney Cooper says the support they've received is overwhelming.
"We would love to thank every single person personally," she said. "I know that's going to be a challenge, but we just want to let people know that we are so grateful and thankful for the kindness of, you know, strangers who don't know us. How much that has meant to us, we are just grateful."
Cooper highlighted efforts by Sarah Nicole and John Goetz, who immediately, booked the family a hotel and provided essentials. Their dogs were taken in by friends at the Paws Boarding Kennel while people all over offered help and suggestions for temporary accommodations.
The jaw-dropping response for Cooper came when her friend Morgan Swift launched a fundraising campaign to help the family.
The GoFundMe campaign has currently raised over $22,000.
"Morgan is just one of those girls who is like, 'What do you need? I'm on it.' She just takes that off your plate," said Cooper. "When we saw the numbers rising, I was just like, wow! It was amazing, it takes that worry off you, of okay, I'm not working, Kurt is not working, we can go pick up this for the kids."
The family is now set up in a cottage for the next month. Cooper said their insurance company has found a modular home they can put on the property while they rebuild, so at this point, there's not much the family can ask for.
"Right now, we're good. We've got clothes, got a place to stay, we're together. The house was a bit of a struggle but that's finally been a relief for us. You know, just being able to walk into a cottage and sit on a couch instead of a bed to hang out as a family."
Kurt has worked at Bruce Power for 22 years, while Courtney operates Country Road Sweets on top of her regular job. She says the custom cake business will take a lengthy hiatus, but noted that builders were optimistic they could have a house rebuilt in six to eight months depending on planning.
"I'm hoping by next year, if I can get the pantry all back together and buy some tools, then I'm hoping I can start baking cakes and doing that again. I am a chef, so I will be baking at work so I can still have that as well," she said.
The family will never be able to replace everything that has been lost, but Cooper says thankfully many of their memories will live on because of all their supporters.
"My mom, she made my kids scrapbooks every year and she has their pictures on USB sticks, so we can rebuild photo albums as best we can. My girlfriend who was our photographer has our whole album ready to go on USB sticks for us so I can have wedding photos again... They're not like 'It's gone it's gone.' They're seeing how they can help, taking time out of their day to dig through rubble and mud just so we can have closure."
If you want to support the Cooper family, find their GoFundMe here.