A community campaign to assist the owners of Mason Brook Nursery with a home expansion to accommodate their two foster daughters continues.
Mike Ordway and Maureen Vaillancourt of Mason live in a five-room farmhouse with their two foster daughters, Angelina and Adrianna. The two girls share a small room, and Ordway and Vaillancourt wanted to expand their home to give the girls more space as they enter middle school. But they couldn’t afford the expansion until members of the local construction community offered their labor, and some materials, at no or reduced cost.
The couple looked at other homes with more room, but the fact that they operate their plant nursery, Mason Brook Nursery, on their property, made moving problematic, and they eventually settled on building an addition on their current home. Vaillancourt’s son, who is in the construction business, as well as other family friends, reached out through social media, asking for donations or to barter services for assistance, and got a flood of responses.
The addition, which has already been started, thanks to local donations, will add three bedrooms – one each for Angelina and Adrianna and a larger master bedroom for Ordway and Vaillancourt – and a bathroom to the home.
Now, an outsides sales representative of The Granite Group, Mike Colby, is running a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to cover the cost of materials for the bathroom and the addition. Colby is training to run a half-marathon – his first ever – and asking for donations in return.
Colby, a resident of Londonderry, said he was struck by how quickly the community around Mason came together, and said he was called to add his bit.
“Taking on foster children is a great thing. I just thought I could do my part for a good cause,” he said. “This is what it means to be a community. It just goes to show what can spark from one person.”
Colby said he was already planning on training for his first half-marathon, the Ipswich Ale Half Marathon on April 25, and decided to make it a fundraiser, as well.
So far, the GoFundMe page has raised $600 of his $1,000 goal. If he raises more than enough to cover the supplies for the new bathroom, he will donate the rest to Ordway and Vaillancourt to offset other expenses of the addition, he said.
To learn more and to view the GoFundMe please visit: gf.me/v/c/n4g8/half-marathon-giving-back
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.