Flood Relief for Joe Brandt

Hi! Joe’s daughter Jess here. It is an extremely difficult time in the history of the entire Kickapoo Valley right now. Homes, businesses, farms, livelihoods of all kinds were washed away overnight. The destruction is so widespread. And with so many people having lost everything, it is not easy to ask for your help here, but I’m going to. My Dad, Joe, is very low-tech & only gets online to check the weather or obits. He does not know what Go Fund Me is, but I do, and I’m here to ask for your help.

By now, everyone reading this is aware of the recent flooding. Yes, Gays Mills has been flooded in the past, too many times to count. What makes this time different is it truly was a record-breaker. This was the 1st time the Village Greenhouse has ever had water in the shop, in Joe’s 34 years there!  It is among, if not THE, highest elevations in town. When his store burned down in 2001, he re-built at the required 3’ above flood plain mark, at that time that was 3’ above the ’78 level. The previous record-breaker before this one (that broke the ’78 mark)  in ’08 flood saw water in his 2nd greenhouse out back, which sits a little lower than the shop & other greenhouse, but no water in the shop. He had, what we now know, was a false sense of security. He thought it would never, ever get this high.

Joe has no flood insurance to cover any of his material losses, needed reconstruction, or down time.He had to cancel weddings that were booked months ago. He lost the 300 fall mum plants that were just hitting their prime, a labor of love many months in the making. He also lost some of the irreplaceable Gays Mills artifacts that were near & dear to him. After the Spring plant season, the other time of year he counts onto help make ends meet is the fall tourist season. At this time, we’re all unsure if Applefest is even going to happen.  Or if being open by then is feasible.

This is what the shop currently looks like, hard to even recognize it: 



What are his plans for the future? Nothing is for certain at this time; we’re still in the clean-up stage. And all are still in shock. It’s hard to think clearly & make these huge decisions when you’re in shock. But at this time, Joe really cannot fathom anything other than cleaning up, fixing the damage done, and getting the Village Greenhouse back to its former self. It’s all he knows. After going to work there day in & out, for 34 years, and at 60 years old, relocating to a new area, building a new shop & greenhouses, a new, fresh start, is a lot harder to fathom that if he were a decade or two younger….

 

Since I know so many of you really care about Joe, and his past, and future on Main Street Gays Mills, I’m hoping you may be able to chip in to help ease the financial burden of his down time. The coming days & weeks will shed a lot of light onto the future of the village as a whole, and The Village Greenhouse.

Ways to contribute:

--You can contribute here using GoFundMe. They do take a percentage of your pledge, but it is convenient.

--You could send a check to him at: PO Box 224, Gays Mills, WI  54631.

--You could walk in & hand him cash or a check.

--You could PayPal me (Jess) via friends/family to avoid any fees, and I will transfer to him, put your name & any message in the notes so I can let him know, my Pp is: https://www.paypal.me/ecofriendlymama 

--And if you can’t contribute financially, I totally understand. If you could share this with your friends/family via Facebook or other social media, I would appreciate that as well. Maybe you can drop him a note to let him know you’re thinking of him & wish him well. Maybe you can lend a hand in the coming weeks with the clean-up & then reconstruction phase.

 I thank you very much for taking the time to read this, and for any contribution of any kind you can make to this recovery process.