Help Rob & Abby Scott Rebuild their home

Rob Scott, our USTA Intermountain Section Executive Director, has been a USPTA Pro, Tennis Director, Manufacturer’s Rep, volunteer, and leader in the tennis community for over forty years. Rob has done so much to completely rebuild and restructure the USTA’s Intermountain Section. Rob Scott’s personal and professional impact on the growth and health of our tennis community is immeasurable.

Rob and his wife Abby lost so much in the Boulder fire. They have been devastated by losing all of their personal history, mementos, belongings and the house they raised their children in, along with their retirement equity. The Boulder fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes, including their entire neighborhood of 140 homes. Literally the only thing left is ashes and a cement wall. The insurance only covers a portion of the cost to rebuild due to skyrocketing building costs and a policy that left them and hundreds of their neighbors underinsured.

This is the reality of Rob & Abby Scott, they lost their home and a good portion of their retirement savings with it!

The best part of a "community" is the way in which we can rally around one another during difficult times. The six districts (Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Utah) and many in and out of the tennis community around the country have rallied around the Scott's in unity to help them out when they need it the most.

The ask and hope is that our advocacy and support will inspire the community at large to consider donating to this GoFundMe page, big or small. With all of our collective efforts, we hopefully can assist Rob so he can get back to leading our Section in the powerful way that he’s done for almost a decade.

Ultimately our goal is to raise $150,000 to give Rob & Abby a chance at a second life.

Please read Rob and Abby’s narrative below to get a better feel for their perspective on the situation.

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1/23/22

Rob and Abby’s fire narrative

Boulder County has had a lot of grass fires lately so when we first heard about this one, it was no big deal. I was at a meeting in Denver, and Abby was running errands in Louisville. Tica (our Goldendoodle) was at home. Abby went home to make some soup for a friend who was sick with a bad cold. My daughter heard through her circle of young mom friends that there was an evacuation order for our neighborhood. She called Abby who got our dog (thank god! many pets died in this blaze), her skis, and passports in the car and left with probably 30 minutes before our entire neighborhood was engulfed in flames. There was absolutely no warning from officials, no reverse 911 call, nobody knocking on our door to evacuate, none of that.

We all met at my daughter's house north of town and watched the huge smoke plume angrily blot out the sun. When my son-in-law John and I heard propane tanks exploding, I knew it was over for our beloved home. I snuck into the burn around 5:30pm through the back roads to not get stopped. As I dropped into our street, the houses around me were on fire… totally engulfed by flames. The toxic smoke was overwhelming and the wind was hurling embers the size of tennis balls against my car so I finally turned around and got out of there.

We decided to evacuate our daughter's house also because it was in peril at that time. Abby and I went to a close friend's home in Boulder for the night. Janice (my daughter) and her family had a ski trip planned so they headed to Salida. About 3:30 the next morning I drove in the back way to our neighborhood to see nothing but smoking rubble left of our home and the entire neighborhood of over 140 houses.

This has been hard on our kids who dug through the ashes of their childhood home looking for something, anything, to take away. There was little to find. The fire was so hot it melted all metal except steel and all glass.

In discussions with our insurance company and other homeowners it became apparent that most of us (90-95% of the 1100 homes destroyed) are underinsured due to skyrocketing construction costs, inflation, and gross negligence on the part of the insurance companies.

While our go-fund-me set up by our kids has been successful (smart kids!), the truth is, we'll need significant resources to make up the gap our insurance has left us with. Currently, State Farm has written us a check for less than one-third of what it will cost to rebuild. We will have to spend money to fight them to recoup any additional dollars.

We are absolutely devastated.

We’ve been scrambling daily to secure housing, replenish the basics of food clothing and belongings (“where’s my toothbrush and comb honey?”) and keep up with the many meetings between city, county, federal, state, insurance, etc. It’s been absolutely exhausting.

For me the respite has been when I can disengage from the chaos which is now our daily lives and engage with Intermountain Staff, District ED’s, Board members, tennis providers, and National staff. It's very grounding and refreshing. Thankfully as each day passes, I am able to engage more thoroughly with my incredible ITA family.

We have a good team:

● My son-in-law is a builder and general contractor.

● A tennis friend who used to be a senior State Farm Adjuster

● A builder specializing in Insurance loss rebuilds

● A former insurance adjuster specializing in claim submissions

● Kyle Pennington with RJI Builders who specializes in disaster claim rebuilds.

● 800 plus neighbors who have banded together and are meeting regularly to share vital info and various strategies.

So we are not in this alone.

I hope this narrative will give you a backstory on our situation.

As a PSA to all, be sure the insurance policy you have will actually pay to rebuild your home should something like this happen to you. DO NOT trust your insurance agent and your mortgage company to do this for you as we did. The math is simple for how much insurance you need. Take the square footage of your home and multiply it by the cost of construction in your area. In Louisville now, it costs at least $350/square foot (conservatively) to build a home. So for a 2700 square foot home, at $350/square foot, a rebuild of our home will be $945,000.

Any and all support is welcomed and is a literal lifeline for us.

With gratitude for all your amazing support,

Rob and Abby Scott

Louisville, Colorado