Help Restore Llantrisant and Kellyn Foundation

Hello everyone, my name is Andrew Pietrobono and I am making this GoFundMe to benefit the Llantrisant Retreat and Wellness Center along with The Kellyn Foundation. Llantrisant Retreat is an event center run by my amazing fiancé and her family located in Tatamy Pennsylvania along the Bushkill Creek. Unfortunately on August 3rd, the Bushkill Creek overflowed and dumped water into the basement, commercial kitchen and café storage sections of the building. The parking lot is in one word: gone. It is in need of full repair, and almost everything in the basement, kitchen, and café was lost as well. The retaining wall by the handicap access ramp was damaged and the entire bottom level of the building has to be ripped out and replaced. This will be a massive undertaking for not only my fiancés family but also all of their staff and other nonprofits/ businesses that were located inside of the building. The flood also affected The Kellyn Foundation, which is a non-profit whose home base is located within Llantrisant Retreat & Wellness Center. The Kellyn Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation with a mission to develop, support, facilitate and implement programs that encourage family and community physical and emotional wellness. They focus on healthy lifestyles with positive outcomes that can be sustained and taught to future generations, while helping to reduce the individual, family, community and national chronic disease burden. They provide in-classroom healthy lifestyle programming and “Garden as a Classroom” education at 40 elementary schools in 9 school districts in our area, reaching over 9000 students on a yearly basis. This provides the children of these areas with much needed support and knowledge on how to eat healthier meals and learn more about growing their own food in a community setting. The Kellyn Team spends time planting gardens at these schools as well to give students a hands on view of growing fresh and delicious healthy foods which is an experience most of them have never had before. Lastly, through working with local farmers, the Kellyn staff operates the Eat Real Food Mobile Market that travels around the Lehigh Valley and sells fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods with limited access to healthy, fresh produce, whole grains and other grocery staples. My amazing fiancé runs Kellyn Kitchens, which offers plant based power bowls, salads, fresh baked breads, dips, and desserts to be sold on the Mobile Market as well. Not only was Kellyn Kitchens a functioning commercial kitchen, it was also a teaching kitchen where local medical residents, college interns, dietitians, medical students, doctors and community members would come for rotations to learn how to make, eat, and teach the people in their communities how to cook healthy, delicious food. They just expanded their Mobile Market sites to include Allentown and were creating a huge support system throughout the community around local food that encouraged loyal customers to live healthier, better lives. Two days ago Tropical storm Isaias ravaged the Tatamy area and caused the Bushkill Creek to overflow and flood directly through the basement kitchen, and cafe of Llantrisant. The few of us that made it there in time to watch the devastation occur decided to wade through 3 foot deep water and try to salvage as much as we could. Upon our return the next day, we saw exactly how bad the damage from the flood was. My fiancé, her employees, and her family had lost much of what they called their "home away from home" and were left with soaked product and a thick layer of mud throughout the building. I want to thank anyone in advance for donating and to extend my appreciation for you and the community’s undying support. All money donated will be used towards rebuilding what was lost and getting back to helping the community as soon as possible. To conclude, Llantrisant Retreat & Wellness Center and Kellyn Foundation as a whole have spent the last few years giving their all to creating wonderful events and memories at a historic venue, to supporting our local communities by helping educate our youth, and by providing fresh nutritional options of healthy food where there may not have been before. I fully believe Kellyn and Llantrisant will be reestablished through the love and support from the employees, community, schools, local farmers, non-profit partners and our ever-growing family. Llantrisant, Kellyn Kitchens, and the Eat Real Food Mobile Market have been dedicated to helping our community since 2007, and I believe this is the perfect time to show our appreciation and strong support for their values, morals, and strong beliefs to keep as many people as they can safe and healthy.