New Milford CT musician rebuilds just after shedding all in fire
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NEW MILFORD — Each morning Dean Snellback explained he wakes up experience grateful. He has a roof more than his head, a occupation he loves, and a bright long run. It was only a couple of months in the past that all people were in problem.
To day, the cause of the fireplace is undetermined, New Milford Deputy Hearth Marshal Ed Pagan mentioned.
“There were no signs of any accelerant. There was no electrical power, there was very little there that could have possibly started the fireplace. So there is no way of proving how it commenced,” Pagan stated.
Snellback, who is lead singer and guitarist in the community BluesyLand Band, explained his tunes products is his livelihood. With out it, he cannot conduct and without having accomplishing, he can’t make a dwelling.
He mentioned due to the generosity of the New Milford neighborhood, he has been able to uncover a new place to reside, obtain new music equipment and return to performing in a quick period of time of time.
“The compassion and kindness of people today is just too much to handle,” he reported.
He received about $20,000 in donations from a fundraising site and from advantage concert events good friends arranged for him, this sort of as at the White Silo Farm & Vineyard in Sherman, Housatonic River Brewing in New Milford and the Jewish Community Middle in Sherman.
On top of that, as a final result of neighborhood connections, he was in a position to get entry to a recording studio and areas to conduct.
He also observed a way to give back — he volunteers at a men’s group he begun at senior residing services in the course of Fairfield and Litchfield Counties.
“It’s been pretty a journey,” he claimed. “I enjoy what I have and am grateful for each individual working day.”
A new house
In the times after the hearth, Snellback’s pals took him into their household while he was ready for his condominium to be reconstructed. After many building and insurance delays, even though he beloved his apartment and its spot, he mentioned he just couldn’t hold out any lengthier.
In February, he was able to get an condominium on another friend’s 600-acre property, Candlelight Farms Inn in New Milford, where by he nevertheless life.
“There’s a horse farm here. It’s a wing of a farmhouse which is on non-public land… It’s magnificent and attractive,” he stated, introducing he’s operating for his buddy to create and deal with functions at the inn this kind of as weddings.
“I’d only found him that maybe a pair of situations given that he attended my marriage back again in 1988,” Snellback reported. “We experienced reconnected and then when the fire took place, he has been very helpful to me.”
New songs products
Snellback replaced some of his ruined audio machines with donations from other individuals — a lot of of whom had been strangers.
“There was a female who life in New Milford who is advertising and marketing director for a new music business called Bond Audio in New York Town. The company donated some attractive guitars and some other equipment to me,” Snellback claimed.
He was also donated time at a recording studio to record original songs.
“I experienced a whole lot of devices that I have acquired about my 50 several years of participating in music that was irreplaceable,” he reported. “(Some) that I loved were as significantly collectors’ (objects) as tunes gear. I’ve experienced like 12 guitars, I’m down to 3 but 3 is all I will need now.”
‘Guy Time’ men’s group
Snellback started doing at regional senior facilities and quickly volunteered to start a men’s discussion group known as “Man Time.”
“I found that the males there seriously had no outlet,” he stated. “The females are all incredibly social and participate in cards — and the men, for the most aspect, observe Tv.”
Snellback established out to transform that. Each and every week, he engages adult men with a question, these kinds of as “Who is the most brave individual you have at any time known?,” he mentioned.
“In reaction, 1 man explained it was his mother, who had to get a occupation and increase 8 little ones by herself after his father died at age 44,” Snellback claimed.
He stated other males then started to share their possess tales.
He reported the team talks a good deal about gratitude — a phrase he explained is in no way considerably from his mind.
“With how all people responded to me previous yr, men and women often ask me how I’m carrying out,” he added. “I say, ‘I’m the most grateful man I know, that I are living, in many cases, just choked up with gratitude.’”