Family gets help in 'hardest time'
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Paul Betz tries to salvage an antique cast-iron cook stove from the charred remains of his kitchen in Woodbury on Wednesday after a fire last week that destroyed his family's home and damaged their organic farm business. JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR/TIMES ARGUS |
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By Thatcher Moats Times Argus Staff - Published: April 16, 2009
Paul Betz and Kate Camilletti, whose Woodbury home was destroyed and business severely damaged last week by an explosion and fire, are usually the people lending a hand to others after disaster strikes.
Now the couple, who own an organic vegetable operation called High Ledge Farm, are on the receiving end of the kind of generosity they have displayed over the years.
Jean Sousa met Betz and Camilletti the morning after Sousa's home burned in 1995. Though they were strangers to Sousa, Betz and Camilletti were among the roughly 50 people who arrived at Sousa's house to help her and her husband pick up the pieces.
"They stuck with us for months through the process," said Sousa, a Calais resident. "They donated their services. They used to own a house painting business and they painted the inside of our house for us. That's how we got to know them, and we've been close friends ever since."
This past winter, when Alex Low and her family lost their Worcester home and their belongings in a fire, Betz and Camilletti gave them some basic necessities.
"Kate was great right after the fire, and Paul was too," said Low.
They donated food from their farm, said Low, along with clothes and a backpack for Low's kids. That kind of help is important, Low noted, especially right after a disaster.
"Even having insurance, nothing goes through for a long, long time. So to have that response from the community and friends is crucial," said Low. "It gets you through that hardest time when something like that happens."
Sousa and many others in the wider central Vermont community are now rallying to help Betz, Camilletti, their 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son through that "hardest time."
Betz, 41, said the support his family has received has been overwhelming.
"We're pretty blown away by all of it," Betz said. "I never thought I was going to be on this side of it all."
A Web page titled "High Ledge Farm Relief Effort" has been established where people can donate money and learn how to donate labor and meals. It also includes updates from Betz.
The Web page is attached to the Web site for High Mowing Organic Seeds, a business in Wolcott where Betz works in the winter.
In addition to the Web site, the Woodbury town clerk is compiling a list of items people are willing to donate once the family is in a place where they can accept them, said Sousa.
The family's house and some of the farm on Chartier Hill Road was insured, but there were "gaps" in the insurance, said Betz. None of the three vehicles that were destroyed was covered, two greenhouses were uninsured and two others were underinsured, he said.
Police have declared the fire accidental, but no cause has been determined. No one was home when the fire began, but neighbors reported hearing a huge explosion last Thursday at the farm and a 500-gallon propane tank was launched about 200 feet into a field.
Betz is itching to get the farm cleaned up, but has to wait until the insurance company completes its investigation before that can begin. In the meantime, Betz said, he and his wife have been "hosting a slow-moving wake" in which friends and people from the Woodbury area have been coming by and sharing memories of the historic 1800s house and property.
"A lot of people have really strong memories about this house, and we've had a lot of people coming by to tell stories and to say goodbye to the place," said Betz.
"The man whose great-grandfather built this house stopped by the other day …," added Betz.
Betz is confident he and his family will get back on their feet again, but he and his wife struggle with the loss of the historic buildings that so many people held dear.
"I think the hardest thing is the responsibility Kate and I felt toward this barnyard," said Betz. "And honestly, there's almost this level of anxiety around it. In some ways it's like being the guy whose great-great-great-grandfather started the business; nobody wants to be the guy who lets the business fail."
The garage destroyed in the explosion and fire was the original living space until the house was built. A corn crib also burned.
Betz said buildings on the property had recently been put on the historic registry and said he has received letters addressed to "Paul and Kate, old Ainsworth house," referring to the family that built the place.
"I can only think about that for a little while, because that's pretty crushing," he said.
The Web site dedicated to helping the family is www.highmowingseeds.com/paulandkate.html.
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