On June 1, 2011, an extremely rare tornado ripped through western Massachusetts, leaving behind a path of destruction nearly 39 miles long. The aftermath was truly shocking throughout the affected cities, towns and wooded areas. Among the many devastated areas, our hometown of Monson suffered substantial damage. Our family was extremely lucky to be outside of the direct path of the tornado by about one hundred yards. We were spared any property damage but many of our neighbors were not as fortunate. In the days that followed, we put on work gloves, cut branches and dragged brush along with the rest of our community to help clean up the debris in whatever way we could. As the months passed, people began to slowly rebuild and repair their damaged homes. However, just across the street from my children’s bus stop was a large wooded area where the majority of trees were still twisted and broken like matchsticks. Every day we looked at that scarred landscape wondering what we could do to help heal our community. We wanted to do something good with the twisted wood…
Then on October 30, 2011, Mother Nature hit all of southern New England with a record-breaking Nor’easter. Once again the trees suffered extensive damage. That’s when the idea for our company was born. We take wood chips from the tornado and storm-damaged trees and recycle them into something you can use to start your wood stove, fireplace, fire pit and campfire, easily and reliably! They really work. The best thing about our company is that we take the recycling concept full circle by donating trees to help rebuild and heal our community. It is our hope that as the story about Tornado Firestarters spreads and the business grows, we will be able to increase our tree donations to help rebuild Monson and potentially expand to other areas affected by natural disasters.
Thank you for your support!
For more information, please call 413-219-7060 or email us at tornadofirestarters@gmail.com