Rebuild the Hartley Family Home After the Wildfire

On the night the evacuation order came, June Hartley had eleven minutes. She got the kids, the dog, two photo albums, and her late mother's quilt into the truck. By morning, the house her grandfather built on Clifton Road was gone — along with every toy, tool, document, and the cherry orchard Pete had tended for nineteen years.

Insurance will cover a portion of the structure, but the family was underinsured against today's building costs — like so many in the Okanagan — and nothing covers the months of displacement in between. Right now the five of them are sharing a two-bedroom rental above a friend's garage. The kids are still enrolled at their school across town; Pete drives them forty minutes each way before his shift.

This fund, organized with the family's blessing by neighbours on Clifton Road, has three goals: cover the insurance shortfall on rebuilding (about $80,000), replace essentials the family lost (about $25,000), and replant the first two acres of orchard ($15,000) — because the Hartleys have given fruit, jam, and summer jobs to this neighbourhood for two decades, and we want them to come home to something growing.

Every donation is received directly by June and Pete. Updates will be posted here as the rebuild progresses, including photos when the first wall goes up. The Okanagan takes care of its own — but we'd be grateful for help from anywhere it comes.