On Jan. 30, fire destroyed the Boothbay home of the Andrea Giles family. Five of the eight occupants escaped, and the other three, Gracie, 14, Vincent, 15, and Valerie, 16, were all at Sugarloaf competing in the annual Special Olympics winter games, but their beloved pets and all of their belongings were lost. Nothing was covered by insurance.

Since the fire, the family has been staying with relatives and friends.

Boothbay Region Elementary School special education teacher Toby LeConte and Holly Stover, of the Boothbay Region Community Resource Council, have been working with a committee formed by a group of community members trying to gather enough money to buy a mobile home for the family.

The home will need at least four bedrooms. The hope is to purchase a used (in excellent condition) two or three-bedroom unit, and the extra bedrooms could be added onto it. But first the burned home needs removal.

“We’re hoping to get help from local people to take the old trailer away, and the dump will provide a dumpster to help with the removal,” LeConte said in an email. "Rebuilding Together will pay for the new concrete slab, and the hook up of sewer and septic, as well as provide the people to put it all together.”

Other community members involved are Boothbay Town Manager Dan Bryer, Brenda Blackman, the Rev. Sarah Foulger, Tammy Blackman, Rich Green and Amy Winston.

“The group formed organically after several people from the community who were working on helping got together and began updating each other weekly,” Stover said.

Tammy Blackman and Rich Green represent Rebuilding Together, and Brenda Blackman is the representative of the account at First National Bank in Boothbay Harbor.

“Sarah Foulger is a community leader, and angel,” Stover said. “And speaking of angels, Toby LeConte is an angel extraordinaire. She’s representing the interests of the family, and is the conduit between the mom and everybody else. Toby is the most pivotal person in the group, in my opinion.

“She’s the real leader of everything that’s going to happen here. We rely heavily on her.”

Stover said Bryer is there to help with town resources and whatever needs to get done. “Like moving and excavating the stuff off the property, and making it ready for the new septic and the concrete pad that will have to be put in place. He represents the town in all aspects of excavation that needs to be done to rebuild.”

“Tammy and Rich represent Rebuilding Together, and Rebuilding Together represents a lot of people, but they are the boots on the ground, and the organization is positioned to hit the ground running as things start to come together and the new home is put in place.”

Stover said she’s there to help facilitate the group as it moves forward. “We have to all march in tandem, even though everybody is doing something a little different. I’m helping to keep it organized, and to communicate with the others.”

People can still donate money to the Giles account, managed by Brenda Blackman, at the First National Bank in Boothbay Harbor. For assistance, call 633-5149 and ask for Blackman.

Stover asks that people hold off on offering furnishings, until there is a place to collect them.

“We are working diligently, each of us as a separate piece of the puzzle, and together we make one, in addition to others in the community, and Rebuilding Together,” Stover said. “There are a lot of people behind the scenes plugging away at this. It’s sort of like a duck. You can only see what’s on top of the water, but underneath we’re all paddling like crazy, and we hope to get this done as soon as possible.

“Our goal is to reunite the family, and for that we need a place for them to live.”

LeConte may be reached at 207-671-0565, at BRES at 633-5097, or by email at tleconte@csd3-bres.org