Until late September, 74-year-old Ronnie Carr had never felt the pain he endured when he saw his Deer Run Road home engulfed in flames, whipping the sides of shade trees that shadowed his home overlooking picturesque ponds and rolling hills.

After the fire, which was evidently caused by sparks that ignited a can of gas, Carr didn’t know what he was going to do.

With only the clothes on his back, he sat on a small rock wall and watched his wedding and family photos, model tractor collections and all his belongings and keepsakes burn.

Not only did everything he owned go up in smoke, but so did his spirits.

Two months after the devastating fire, Carr is celebrating Thanksgiving in a much different way than how he thought he’d be celebrating in September.

The community is building Carr a new home on the site of his old one.

During the fire, construction contractor

Mike Yoder, who lives near Carr, came to the scene and put his arm around his neighbor, assuring him that everything would be okay.

“We shed a few tears together,” said Yoder, who owns Yoder Construction Co., which is building Carr’s new home. “My heart just went out to him. I just felt like I wanted to do something. I didn’t promise it to him … There’s enough people around here that’s concerned that we’ll do something for him.”

Yoder said Carr had some insurance, “but a very limited amount and the bank took some of that.”

Members of the community have donated labor, time, food and many other supplies to Carr since the fire. Much of the labor and materials for his new home have been donated.

“The siding, for example, was donated. The labor to put the siding on was donated. We had a house raising one day … We did the whole deck and frame the house in one day. …,” Yoder said. Businesses have offered discounts for construction materials and the metal for the home and its installation were both donated.

The inspiration for Carr to build again and not move away came from Yoder’s two small grandchildren, Harrison Miller, 2, and Lily Miller, 4. After hearing of their friend’s misfortune, the two gave him all of their savings from their piggy banks, all $2.81.

“Lily just came up to me one morning and she said she wanted to give money from her piggy bank to Mr. Carr for a new house. They love Mr. Carr,” said Charlotte Miller, the children’s mother.

She said Lily recites a prayer for Carr almost every morning for a new home.

“It’s made me a pretty happy mama. She brought me the money in one of her little purses and I brought her straight down here.”

“He’s a friend, that’s it,” Yoder said when asked why he wanted to help Carr. “I mean, I just felt sorry for him.”

Carr called the Yoders “good Christian friends.”

“It’s just what we do for our friends,” said Joy, Mike’s wife. “… [I’m] excited to see the community come together.”

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Carr said, “and I’m in bad health, and I thought it was time for me just to move on.”

Carr has been living at the same place for about 24 years now.

“I didn’t have no idea that a man could suffer that kind of a pain,” he said of the fire. “I had over 235 model tractors … all my late wife’s ceramics, my kid’s pictures [and] wedding pictures. I hold on to things very close that’s dear to my heart, just like that letter,” he said of the hand-written note that accompanied the children’s $2.81.

“I know God is real this time more so than ever. And the people here have encouraged me to keep going. It’s hard,” Carr said.

Both Yoder and Carr give all the credit of the project to God.

“I really do … It’s not about me,” Yoder said. “It’s about Him and trying to be what we’re supposed to be on this earth for.”

“There’s nothing no more precious than a child,” Carr said of the children.

He said that he hopes to move into his new home within the next several weeks.