Nichols, NY — Eleven weeks ago, our lives were turned upside down and we felt pain like we have never felt or ever want to feel again. Not only did we loses our livelihoods, we lost some of our best friends that day. These were not just racehorses but they were family and our reason for getting out of bed every day.
We didn’t know if we would ever be able to carry on but with the enormous amount of support and compassion we have been given from not only our local community, but also the horse community in general, it has been overwhelming, from financial donations to equipment to people’s time to emotional support, we have been lost for words with people’s generosity.
We have taken our time to publicly thank everyone as we have had donations come in from all over the world and wanted to be sure we didn’t miss anyone as every donation, no matter how big or small, has been so very gratefully received.
We want to thank the following: Allie Skowyra for setting up the goFundme page; the village of Nichols and local businesses for raising money for the Tioga fire fund; the many racetracks and associations that came together to donate; Shannon for our wonderful tree of life horseshoes; Mr. Gural for his and FanDuel’s generous donation; the breeders and onGait for raising an enormous amount of money to help compensate the owners; Ashley and Timmy Tetrick for the wonderful support and efforts to help replace William’s Hall of Fame and to all the fantastic people that answered her plea and sent such wonderful things; Shannon Wright Machovec for the huge effort to organize barn purges all over and to all the wonderful people that donated equipment from all over the country; Rick Bertrand for driving all the equipment and horses to us at Tioga, what an amazing effort that was; and to every single person that donated, no matter how big or small; STHHA; just to name a few as there are so many more.
Myself (Kayla Morris) and Lee Morris would like to personally thank Dennis and Diane Whittemore. Over the past eight years they have become like family to us, and they made the journey to Tioga the day of the fire from their home in Maine to donate equipment and give us emotional support to get us through the first few days.
All our owners for sticking with us and especially David Yarock and Tom Reynolds who immediately went and purchased new horses to give us income and a reason to get up in the mornings; without you all we wouldn’t be here, words cannot thank you enough.
Many thanks to every one — your generosity and prayers have been so gratefully received.