How to help

Farmhand Tony LoVerde said while the owners are not ready to talk about the fire, people can reach out to help by emailing frogbellyfarm@gmail.com.

Several fundraising campaigns have been established since Friday to help victims:

• Help Tony and Melissa begin again: gofundme.com/tonyandmelissa?ssid=911906214&pos=2

• Fund for Ashley, Heather and Frida: gofundme.com/fund-for-ashley-heather-frida

• Help Frog Belly Farm Rebuild!: youcaring.com/frogbellyfarmlongmontco-755011

From a child holding a chicken for the first time to a couple saying sacred marriage vows, thousands of people made memories at Frog Belly Farm, the single site of a fire that burned 24 acres near Longmont throughout most of Friday.

For Tony LoVerde, it was where he worked as a farmhand, where he moved in with his girlfriend who became his fiancée and where they were going to get married in September.

"This space, so many people took sacred vows here," LoVerde said. "So many people started their lives, turned the next chapter of their lives in this space. I know that so many thousands and thousands of people had their own experience and relationship with this farm."

With the smell of smoke from the Rogers Fire hanging in the air, he looked out at the property and the still-smoldering piles of burnt debris, such as collapsed buildings, scattered nails and a burst bag of chicken feed, where a Black Star chicken pecked around seemingly unmindful of what occurred.

"It's not just those of us that live here, that work here," LoVerde said. "It really was kind of a hub, like a nexus point in the community. And I don't know what they're going to do exactly. But I do know that they could use support and cleanup."

Frog Belly Farm was started in 2006, according to its website, by Mike and Melanie McKinnon in honor of a family friend who died. The farm sold grass-fed meats, goat milk and fresh eggs, and it grew fruits and vegetables.

In an effort to fulfill the farm's mission of restoring the bond between people, food and nature, it was the site of children's enrichment programs, where they learned the origin of milk and other food products.

"I think that was such an amazing thing about this place," LoVerde said. "I really started to learn about why food is the way that it is. I hate to say it this way, but what does real food look like?"

He said they had worked for months to store up meat in freezers, including a whole cow, a whole pig and about 80 harvested chickens.

"It's just such a different relationship," he said. "It's a much older relationship. It's what people did; it was the norm 50 years ago. The idea that you would just hop over to the store was not (an option)."

Boulder County sheriff's officials announced over the weekend that the fire at 5255 Rogers Road destroyed 10 outbuildings and killed 28 animals — 22 goats, five piglets and one pig.

LoVerde said most of those goats were going to give birth next week and several were young goats that were going to replace the ones retiring from work producing milk.

He said the destroyed structures included a dome building that housed fig trees, basil and wintergreens; a greenhouse of tomatoes, peppers and kale; a chicken coop; a shop; the goat dairy; a horse shed, and the barn where community events were held and where two families lived.

"Obviously this is such a massive cleanup job," he said, adding that they're now working through what insurance can cover.

He said he and his fiancée, Melissa, on Friday awoke to texts and phone calls alerting them of the fire while they were in Colorado Springs, where they were looking at purchasing a school bus to transfer into a tiny home as a dream project and motivation to leave a place they were comfortable to travel.

"When something like this happens to you, do you run out and buy everything again?" he said.

He said they're thinking of the tragic event as the opportunity to make their dream of traveling a reality, especially with the outpouring of support from the community.

"Maybe we just take this as the message that it is and we transform and we change and try to make the best out of it," he said, " ... because it's just too easy to stand around and look at what was."

Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen

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