When communities band together, there’s nothing they can’t accomplish. This sense of altruism was seen in Sue City, Iowa recently when the owners of a small business received a shock many couldn’t recover from if not with the help of friends, family, and total strangers.
Tori and Justin Engelhardt are the proud owners of Wild Hill Honey. They invested thousands of dollars into their business. Some unkind souls didn’t care about the love, time, effort and financial value of Wild Hill Honey.
Vandals broke into the couple’s bee farm and destroyed 50 hives, killing over half a million bees. The vandal’s damage cost upwards of $50,000 to $60,000.
Justin discovered the destruction when he went to check on the hives. All of them were lost, and so were the supplies in his supply shed. Justin and Tori admitted to the Sue City Journal that things: “Looked really hopeless.”
But their situation wouldn’t remain bleak for long. News of the beekeepers ruined property spread quickly. Folks from Sue City and the surrounding communities opened their hearts and wallets in support of the Engelhard’s.
Support poured in overnight. The couple’s main GoFundMe page raised nearly $15,000 in less than a day. By the writing of this post, the total raised on the Engelhard’s main fundraising page is $36,693. With the other fundraising pages established on behalf of the couple, several thousand dollars were donated.
Wild Hill Honey posted this on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/WildHillHoney/posts/841585802690809
Police are still investigating the crime; Tori and Justin are working to rebuild Wild Hill Honey: “We are salvaging what we can,” Justin Engelhardt told the Sioux City Journal.
The couple is so thankful for all the assistance they’ve received; their beehives weren’t insured, so these fundraising pages have been a great help: “Holy smokes,” Engelhardt said to the Sioux City Journal. “That is amazing. We are really really grateful for all the support.”
We wish Tori and Justin all the best in rebuilding their business. May they have only the sweetest success in the future.