BERLIN (NBC 26) — The Dandelion Farm in Downtown Berlin suffered extensive damage after a fire early November, but the community was quick to offer support and resources to get them back on their feet before the holiday shopping season.
- A fire started in the upstairs apartments of The Dandelion Farm & Relaxation Spa two weeks ago.
- The building is currently uninhabitable, so the business is working off of online sales.
- Neighbors were quick to start raising money and offering resources to the small business owner.
Deidre Sauer began selling soaps and lotions through Dandelion Farms about a decade ago. She used milk from her pet goats to hand-make her products.
“If you would have told me 15 years ago that this was going to be my business, I would have been like ‘what? No way,” Sauer says. “It just kept growing and growing and growing, and I’m very blessed and thankful of where we are at now.”
As a long-time business owner in Berlin, Sauer built up a positive reputation.
“She can take something negative and just turn it around and find the positive,” Chris Kapula, director of the Berlin Public Library, says. “She’s just been a really good friend. I think you start out and you just automatically connect with Deidre, she’s just that kind of person.”
So, when tragedy struck her business, the community was quick to step up.
“Small town Berlin, we’re one big, happy family,” Sauer says.
In early November, a fire started in the upstairs apartments of the spa's building. None of the tenants, employees, or customers were injured, but the entire building was damaged.
“It was like a nightmare,” Sauer says.
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Molly Gallart is a Dandelion Farm employee, and she lives in one of the apartments upstairs. She says there was little left to salvage from her home.
“I just saw my livelihood burning away,” she says. “Just very scary to see everything gone in a blink of an eye.”
Before the fire trucks were even gone from the scene, the community was reaching out with support.
“I had like 67 missed text messages and calls, and it was just everyone I know from the shop and from the community,” Gallart says.
Melissa Bending, a local massage therapist with a business down the road from Sauer’s, started a community fund through the local Farmers and Merchants Bank. The money will go to support the now unemployed workers and the displaced tenants.
“That whole group of ladies that work there are pretty special,” she says. “I think a lot of people are happy to help support them.”
Kapula helped pick up the torch of Sauer’s Small Business Saturday events, something Sauer has become known for.
“I said ‘Deidre don’t worry about it… I got this,” Kapula says.
Servpro, a water damage restoration company out of Appleton, moved all of the salvageable products out of the building, labeling and organizing hundreds of items for Sauer.
“She is a local person who needs our help, and that's exactly what our business is designed to help,” Luke Snyder, Servpro Appleton vice president, says.
Plus, a dentist in Berlin offered up his office so Sauer could set up a temporary shop.
“I think that’s why the Berlin community reached out to her so much, because she’s done so much for them,” Kapula says.
The Dandelion Farm’s online shop is still open. You can follow their Facebook page for updates.
