Stable fire shines the light on the good in the community

The Smithfield Stables fire has pulled together a community, a community that has its eye on helping their neighbor who has lost it all.

Looking on Facebook, it is almost impossible to touch on every single thing people are offering, but the Edwardsburg Presbyterian Church is giving away free jugs of water since the boil water advisory is still in effect.

It is the efforts of one restaurant and a construction company that have gone over and beyond for a fellow business owner.

“They're our customers, they're our friends, they're our neighbors and this is just what you do in a small community,” said Kate Horn, co-owner of Fat Cam's at Garver Lake.

She and her husband own the mom and pop shop in Edwardsburg.

“What do you do in a situation like that?” asked Horn.

She saw a fellow business-owner's most prized possession go up in flames Tuesday night.

“It was just a devastating feeling,” said Horn.

So Wednesday night, a donation bucket is sitting on their bar top in an effort to collect funds for those that lost something in that enormous fire.

“I just kept thinking, what if that were our place? What would you feel? We're animal lovers, we're people lovers,” said Horn.

Customers are saying the community outreach speaks volumes of this small village.

“I'm glad to see it. That's why I live here,” said resident David Szynski.

Lots of people are lending a hand.

“When they see these kind of things, they think, how do we help? How do we get involved?” said Adam Brown, President of HomeWorks Construction.

That company offered their mobile command post.

“We wanted to bring out our mobile command center to provide shelter, heat, food and beverages,” said Brown.

They also donated care packs full of linens.

“These are the people that you sit down next to, eat dinner with, go to football games, basketball games and so when they're affected, we're affected,” said Brown.

Everyone seems to be affected by this disaster, but that sadness has been quickly overshadowed with the good in people willing to help a neighbor and a stranger.

“Honestly the outpouring of support for them is amazing,” said Horn.

Fat Cam's plans to take their donations and add it to Niles Federal's collection Friday night but they say they will continue to collect money as long as they need to.
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