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NEW MILFORD — Each individual morning Dean Snellback reported he wakes up sensation grateful. He has a roof over his head, a job he enjoys, and a vivid long run. It was only a couple months in the past that all these were being in issue.
To date, the induce of the fireplace is undetermined, New Milford Deputy Fire Marshal Ed Pagan claimed.
“There have been no indicators of any accelerant. There was no electrical power, there was almost nothing there that could have potentially started off the fireplace. So there’s no way of proving how it started off,” Pagan stated.
Snellback, who is direct singer and guitarist in the community BluesyLand Band, claimed his new music devices is his livelihood. With no it, he can’t perform and with out carrying out, he just cannot earn a living.
He mentioned thanks to the generosity of the New Milford neighborhood, he has been equipped to obtain a new area to stay, obtain new music equipment and return to doing in a limited time period of time.
“The compassion and kindness of individuals is just mind-boggling,” he stated.
He received about $20,000 in donations from a fundraising web page and from benefit concert events pals organized for him, this kind of as at the White Silo Farm & Winery in Sherman, Housatonic River Brewing in New Milford and the Jewish Community Center in Sherman.
In addition, as a result of neighborhood connections, he was able to get entry to a recording studio and places to conduct.
He also uncovered a way to give back — he volunteers at a men’s group he commenced at senior residing services throughout Fairfield and Litchfield Counties.
“It’s been pretty a journey,” he reported. “I recognize what I have and am grateful for each individual working day.”
A new home
In the days following the fire, Snellback’s mates took him into their home whilst he was waiting around for his apartment to be reconstructed. After a lot of construction and insurance policies delays, even though he cherished his apartment and its spot, he claimed he just could not hold out any more time.
In February, he was in a position to get an condominium on one more friend’s 600-acre house, Candlelight Farms Inn in New Milford, exactly where he nonetheless lives.
“There’s a horse farm listed here. It’s a wing of a farmhouse which is on personal land… It’s stunning and lovely,” he said, including he’s doing the job for his good friend to create and control activities at the inn this kind of as weddings.
“I’d only found him that perhaps a pair of occasions due to the fact he attended my wedding ceremony back in 1988,” Snellback reported. “We had reconnected and then when the fireplace transpired, he has been very practical to me.”
New new music products
Snellback replaced some of his ruined new music products with donations from others — many of whom had been strangers.
“There was a lady who life in New Milford who is advertising and marketing director for a audio company known as Bond Audio in New York Metropolis. The organization donated some stunning guitars and some other devices to me,” Snellback reported.
He was also donated time at a recording studio to report first tracks.
“I had a good deal of devices that I’ve obtained more than my 50 many years of enjoying audio that was irreplaceable,” he claimed. “(Some) that I loved have been as a great deal collectors’ (items) as music products. I’ve had like 12 guitars, I’m down to three but three is all I require now.”
‘Guy Time’ men’s team
Snellback started carrying out at community senior facilities and soon volunteered to commence a men’s discussion team termed “Male Time.”
“I found that the males there truly had no outlet,” he said. “The females are all extremely social and engage in cards — and the guys, for the most portion, watch Tv.”
Snellback set out to change that. Each week, he engages men with a concern, this kind of as “Who is the most courageous person you have at any time recognized?,” he said.
“In reaction, 1 person explained it was his mother, who experienced to get a task and elevate 8 kids by herself right after his father died at age 44,” Snellback explained.
He explained other adult men then commenced to share their very own tales.
He said the group talks a great deal about gratitude — a phrase he said is by no means far from his mind.
“With how every person responded to me very last year, people typically check with me how I’m performing,” he additional. “I say, ‘I’m the most grateful person I know, that I stay, frequently, just choked up with gratitude.’”