Ohio community rallies around farm couple in need

Dec 04, 2017

Don and Judy Thompson lost a building and some animals due to a barn fire

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

Friends and family of a Portage County, OH farm couple are doing all they can to help the pair move forward after a devastating barn fire.

A GoFundMe account has raised over $1,700 towards a $5,000 goal for Don and Judy Thompson, who lost a barn, some sheep, dairy calves, dogs and hay in a Nov. 29 fire.

The 125-acre farm was a dairy operation from 1977 until the early 2000s when the family transitioned to raising cattle and sheep. The farm was an integral part of the family’s history, making the losses even harder to swallow.

“He grew up on a farm and that was his dream to have a farm,” Kylee Myers, Don’s 19-year-old granddaughter who started the fundraiser, told Farm and Dairy on Dec. 3.

“This was all my father had. He built this farm with his bare hands,” Donnie Thompson Jr. told the Record-Courier on Nov. 29. “How do you rebuild from this? What can you do?”

Firefighters from Ravenna Township were the first on scene. A total of 14 fire crews including Streetsboro, Garrettsville, Rootstown and Kent worked together to get the fire under control.

Mark Kozak, Ravenna Township Fire Chief, estimates the fire destroyed about 20,000 square feet of space, according to Farm and Dairy.

The family believes the cause of the fire was electrical. The fire is under investigation but not considered suspicious.

The total estimated damage is unclear and no humans were reported injured.

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