BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — Home sweet home for Gina Helart and wife, Jen Smith is Gina's dad's basement in Gina's childhood home.
They're grateful for a roof over their heads, but up until Dec. 30, their home was an 1,800 square-foot, two bedroom, two bath house in Original Town Superior. It was destroyed, along with 1,100 other homes, in the Marshall Fire.
Like the other Marshall Fire families, it wasn't just the house Gina and Jen lost — it was everything.
"We had just gotten a wedding ring of my mom's and a wedding ring of my dad's. And [my dad] had given them to us on Christmas Eve as a gift in a wooden box that my oldest brother made, beautiful presentation. And we put it in my jewelry box, and it's gone," Gina said.
So while they sort through the tangled, arduous web that is getting money from the insurance company to rebuild, they wait — still paying the mortgage on a house that no longer exists.
"It's a kick in the teeth, it really is. It hurts, paying for nothing," Gina said.
Thanks to generous viewers who've donated to Denver7 Gives, we were able to give Gina and Jen $5,000 through the nonprofit, A Precious Child to help with their mortgage.
A Precious Child in Boulder County has been a vital resource for families who lost so much in the fire. The nonprofit has been providing household items and essentials while connecting families with the resources and services they need.
In addition to the other needs, 150 families have reached out to A Precious Child for help with rent and mortgage payments.
"They're barely starting to figure out how to rebuild. The pricing is higher now than when these families bought their house back in the day," said Maria Martinez with A Precious Child.
Denver7 Gives wanted to help the nonprofit help these families, so we teamed up to create the Marshall Fire Housing Fund and presented a check to A Precious Child for $300,000. It comes from money donated from generous Denver7 viewers.
"Thank you so, so much. You do not know the difference this is gonna make to those families that are literally trying to survive with paying rent and covering mortgages and all that," Martinez said.
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Denver7 features the stories of people who need help and now you can help them with a cash donation through Denver7 Gives. One hundred percent of contributions to the fund will be used to help people in our local community.
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