New Hope Weathers the Storm – But Not Unscathed.
By David Kershen.
January ended at New Hope with a visit from Elsa.. and several inches of ice and snow that had us in survival mode. We’re very grateful to Kim Martin and Clarie Messerle for doing freeze prep getting ready for the bad weather. Thanks to their prepping efforts, Sharla and I were able to keep the New Hope herd fed and warm for 5 days when our facility was iced in and the regular horse care team couldn’t get here.
Four day’s into the “ice-apocalypse” we had the misfortune of losing two paddock shed covers to the extreme weight of the ice and snow. Gladly the collapse didn’t harm any humans or horses.. but it did leave us with a major mess. Luckily for us New Hope has a great group of volunteers close by, and a number were able to make it over that afternoon to help clear out the damage and get the paddocks safe for equine occupation. Many thanks Zach, Lee, Kathleen, Curt and Jarmon for braving the icy roads to lend a hand!
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Special kudos to our volunteer coordinator Emily Rogers for quickly getting the word out and starting a Go Fund Me campaign to help pay for the damage. Word spread quickly, and we more than exceeded the funding goal when a local Fox New’s producer caught wind of the situation and sent a news crew to do a segment.
Fox 4 New’s Link 
So, the silver lining here is that we’ll be able to build back the paddock covers stronger and better later on this spring, and we may even have added funds to put towards our paddock footing project! Stay tuned to our blog page for follow-up news as the rebuilding efforts get underway. A HUGE New Hope “Thank You” to all the donors stepping up this past week.
Ride on and ride for hope.
If you’d like to pitch in and help with storm repair expenses, simply click here to Donate to New Hope.
