STANLEY, Idaho — It’s been ten days since Joe and Lindsay Mierzwinski had to evacuate from their home and the Stanley RV and Camp – their family-owned business.
While they are waiting, they decided to start a fundraiser for the Stanley Fire Department through their store – Sawtooth Goods.
“We're only a town of 114 people, so anything that we can do to help our community I'm happy to do,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay started Sawtooth Goods two years ago – and now – wants to use her design skills to help her community. She created t-shirts and sweatshirts, and she said all proceeds will go to the firefighters.
“A lot of them have had to suspend their day-to-day job to spend all of their time protecting our homes,” Lindsay said.
The Stanley Fire Department is made up of all volunteers, and one Lindsay and Joe call their friends.
“We know them. They're our neighbors, and they've been displaced,” Lindsay said.
With Stanley being a small town, Joe Mierzwinski said it’s hard to not worry about what these fires are going to do to the long-term economy. It’s also hard to not be going through the fires together, he said, because they are all evacuated.
“We are such a small, close knit community,” Joe said. “It's just tough not going through all of this side by side with all of them.”
Joe said to help, it’ll be beneficial to simply visit Stanley and book a trip there, once it is safe to do so – in order to help the town get back on their feet.
“The mountains are made of rock -- they're still there. The lakes are made of water -- they're still there. It's all still beautiful,” Joe said.