OXFORD, Conn — Two weeks after a historic storm tore through southwestern Connecticut, the community is coming together to help businesses and homeowners rebuild.
In Oxford, a group of family members, friends and strangers showed up at the Olde Sawmill Miniature Golf Course on Monday morning, ready to get to work.
“This is just, you can’t describe it. You can imagine if it was you, people just pouring out that you don’t even know, coming here, helping out, telling you, ‘You’ll be open soon’ and things like that. It’s a tremendous feeling. It makes you really happy I mean, more than happy,” said Al Turcott, the owner of the Olde Sawmill Miniature Golf Course.
Turcott wasn’t sure what the future of his 30-year business would be following the storm, which tore through his parking lot, his newly-renovated restaurant and most of the holes on the course.
“Day I came down here after the storm, I said, ‘I’ll never be able to reopen.’ The parking lot where people are parked, there was no parking lot. You had holes ten to twelve feet deep,” Turcott said. “Now that it is safe, and you can walk around without falling on rocks or whatever, things like this can be done. People can come here and help me, and boy are they helping me. I never in a million years would think they could do what they did this morning.”
In a local Facebook group, “Neighbors for Neighbors, Flood Assistance for Oxford, CT,” a call to action was put out, asking members to help Turcott rebuild.
That call was answered as soon as 10 a.m. on Monday, when dozens of people showed up.
“It was one car after another pulling into this parking lot,” Turcott said.
Others who know the family well stopped by to help in any way they could.
“Because they’re my family. Because I know what they’re going through. Just seeing the videos, of the damage. And I hadn’t been here, I just know how they feel. I want to help,” said Charlotte Adams, an Oxford neighbor who used to work at the golf course when she was 19 years old.
Adams lives in Southbury and owns a business in Woodbury. She said she didn’t see any damage to her home but her neighbors weren’t as lucky.
“So as soon as I woke up the next morning, I said to my husband, ‘I’m going, I’m walking,’ and we just went door to door, trying to help neighbors,” Adams said.
She hasn’t stopped that mission for two weeks. When she saw the volunteer event happening at Olde Sawmill, she knew she needed to make it there.
“There’s nothing better than community. People getting together to help others,” Adams said. “There’s so many family memories here for a lot of people in the surrounding areas, the valley, as I call it. That I think we just want to keep all those memories alive. Make new ones."
With the help from the community, including a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $22,000, Turcott is aiming to have the place back up and running by next summer.
“It was a good business, it’s going to be a good business again. It’s an enjoyable place to be. Everybody comes here happy and leaves happy,” Turcott said.
When the business is back up and running, Turcott said he will be hosting a grand opening party. Before then, he’s brainstorming how to thank his community for lifting him up.
“I don’t know how to thank people, but I’ll think of a way, believe me I will,” Turcott said.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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