A New Ipswich family is trying to get back on their feet after a fire destroyed their home.
The home of married couple Leslie Griffin and Jason Ard of New Ipswich is uninhabitable after a fire on April 17, which displaced the family and killed at least one of their pets. A friend and workmate of Griffin, Kyle Farrell, is organizing a GoFundMe page to collect donations to help the family help replace what they’ve lost.
Griffin and Ard lived in the home with their daughter and her boyfriend, according to Farrell, and have been staying with family and friends since the fire.
Farrell said the house and their possessions were not insured, and the family lost everything in the fire.
“They’re starting over from scratch,” Farrell said.
Both Griffin and Ard serve with AmeriCorps, a civil service organization that connects its members with public service work, Farrell said. Through AmeriCorps, Griffin serves with Harbor Homes Emergency Shelter in Nashua, and also works with tracking analytics for Nashua’s Safe Stations program. Safe Stations help to connect people with substance abuse treatment resources. Ard, through AmeriCorps, serves with Recovery Corps, which helps to connect people in substance abuse recovery connect with services.
“He’s working directly with clients, and she’s working on the back end of the same issue,” Farrell said.
Both of them work full-time with the organization, and receive an annual stipend of about $15,000, Farrell said, so those who work with Griffin are organizing a campaign to financially assist the family.
“Leslie is a very bubbly person, she’s always willing to share and is definitely the outgoing type,” Farrell said. “When her daughter’s boyfriend needed a place to live, she readily welcomed him into her home.”
They have found two of their three cats, with the third still missing, and their dog, Copper, died in the fire, Farrell said.
To assist the family, visit gofundme.com/two-americorps-lose-home-in-fire.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.