A tragic barn fire in Ball Ground, Georgia at Blue Springs Farm resulted in the loss of 26 horses on August 5th. But out of the heartbreak came hope in the form of a young girl who just wanted to help.
One of the riding school’s students, Piper Martin, decided to start raising funds to help the family-owned riding school and horse boarding facility get rebuilt. Initially she offered up the contents of her piggy bank, but with her mom’s help she organized a lemonade stand to benefit the riding school. “My horse meant a lot to me,” Martin told a local news outlet, referring to Zan, a horse she rode. “I was really hoping that we can do this lemonade stand so we can get a new horse, new barn, new everything.”
According the Blue Spring Farm’s Facebook page, a few of the students also sold donuts and took some to the firefighters that responded to the barn fire. A local feed company, Cherokee Feed and Seed, is also raising funds at its three stores and there is a GoFundMe campaign online. So far the online fundraiser has raised just over $50,000 of its $70,000 USD goal. In addition to the six school horses, 18 of the horses owned by the Carney Performance Horse (CPH) family also perished. The fundraising efforts will also benefit this family.