Rebuilding after BC Wild Fire

I am Ryan Curtis from Vancouver, and I have created this Fundraiser is to raise money to aid in the rebuilding of one man's family legacy.
In summer of 2017 wildfires ravage a large portion of central British Columbia. Evacuation alerts were sent to neighborhoods where the fire were encroaching, including the picturesque lake village of Loon Lake where hundreds of families and thousands of visitors spend their summers.


My very dear friend, Matt Gorman carved out a little slice of heaven on the boat access only side of that lake, in a modest family cabin. There was a small cabin on the land when he bought it in 2003, and even though it was no bigger than a shed Matt was happy that he had a place to take his family during the summer where they could create long lasting memories of family fun.


More importantly Matt always talked about it as a place to leave his children so one day they could bring their children and keep the tradition alive, a modest legacy .


Even though the cabin was 5 hour drive from home Matt would visit frequently with as many as fifteen trips per year. It literally became his second home. A place where he would hang all his worries and stresses at the door and be able to truly relax. No phones, or power, or running water only added to the feeling that you were on vacation mode. 

The guest list seemed to double every year. The first few years it was close friends and family helping finish the small cabin so it would be ready for guests, but then as the years went on the amount of visitors seemed to double. Matt loved sharing his little piece of heaven with as many people as he could, and surely everyone who visited went away thinking that maybe they should get a place like Matt's after seeing how much happiness it brought him and his family. 

With all the people coming to visit Matt finally inacted stage two of his dream, build another cabin. in 2012 he started building along with a very close friend who supplied labour and the know how they got the new cabin framed and looking good.  


Altough the new cabin was a much bigger structure it was still very simple, nothing fancy just functional.

On a shoestring budget and over the next few years they plugged away on their long weekends, and holidays adding a little bit here and there until finally this year Matt made the push. He decided that 2017 was the year HE WOULD BE FINISHED BUILDING!!


On his last trip to the cabin Matt applied half the siding, leaving the rest for his next trip where he could finish it, and would be completed..... He would never get the chance.  

While taking his Boy Scout troop to a visit to a Jamboree in Halifax Matt got the news via Facebook. Loon Lake is on Evacuation Orders. On the literal other side of the country Matt was helpless. Having a cabin on the boat access side of the lake is nice, but without road access you can not get insurance.

The 2017 fires that spread to Loon Lake did so in a matter of hours. Within fours hours of coming over the mountain Matt's cabins were gone.




Over a decade of blood, sweat and tears (literally) everything he had worked so hard for, the little slice of heaven that brought so much happiness for all who visited,  his favorite place in the world, his family legacy was gone. Was burned in a matter of minutes.



For all his friends it was soul crushing to watch this wildfire play out on Facebook, with each new updating changing the possible outcome. Some updates made it looks like doom, and then others that maybe there was  chance everything would be okay.  As I sat there wishing I could do something to help to help my friend, the feeling of helplessness drove the creation of this campaign.
We can't all be there to help Matt rebuild but maybe we can ease the pain a little by helping with a little bit of the cost of rebuilding his 2nd home. 

The amount we are trying to raise is only a fraction of the entire rebuild cost, but it will be enough to get started. I am hoping we can raise enough to cover the cost of the framing on the new cabin. So essentially $10,000 in lumber and building supplies. 
 Labor will be supplied by friends and family. Funds for a rebuild are needed before fall to get building supplies over to the other side of the lake before winter, so rebuild can start in the spring.

Matt will probably hate this fundraiser, he will say that many other people need the help more then him, and he could be right, but to me Matt Gorman is a man who selflessly goes out of his way to bring happiness to his family and friends by sharing the place that brings him so much joy. If that's not a reason to rebuild I don't know what is.

So if you can spare a dollar or two  to help Matt and his Family it will go a long way to rebuilding their little slice of heaven.  %100 of donations (after3rd party processing fees) will be deposited directly to Matt. 

If local to Vancouver: Donations of Tools would be apprciated as all building tools were lots in the fire.  Drills/Saws/Chainsaw etc..