A sad situation

The victim in the Friday evening fatal crash has been identified by his family as Kelsey Skokan, 17, of Longmont.

Kelsey Skokan, left, with his brothers and parents at Black Cat farm. Kelsey’s sister is not pictured. (Courtesy of Black Cat)

Kelsey is the son of Eric and Jill Skokan, owners of Black Cat. Skokan was driving a 1972 MG coup west on Nelson Road when he was hit head-on by a dump truck driving east. The dump truck drifted into the opposite lane “after failing to navigate the right hand curvature of the roadway,” said Colorado State Patrol Trooper Josh Lewis.

The crash occurred in the 9800 block of 51st Street at 5:21 p.m. The dump truck then traveled down a dirt embankment and crashed into Skokan’s home and destroyed a bedroom, according to a newsletter from Black Cat.

Colorado State Patrol is investigating speed as a factor, Lewis said.

Megan Henderson, a friend of the Skokans, said she woke up Sat**day morning and was “beside (herself) and wanting to help after learning the news on Friday evening.”

Henderson started a GoFundMe page for the Skokans, deciding it was the best way to provide immediate help.

By Monday night, the fundraiser had raised more than $197,000 from more than 1,900 donors.

“Donations from this account will help ease the financial burden that they will be facing and an allowance for time for the family to grieve because as farmers, their work is never done,” Henderson wrote on the page.

In the newsletter, Brown said the Boulder community has responded with “astounding generosity.”

Community members have volunteered to harvest and clean vegetables, to temporarily adopt lambs that require bottle-feeding and to move fence lines, the letter said, and local chefs have offered to cook meals for the family.

Boulder Chautauqua donated the temporary use of a cottage for extended family members that flew in, the letter said.

Several area chefs and restaurants on Sat**day volunteered and organized a schedule to help the family with meals and support.

Henderson said the substantial amount of GoFundMe donations will help the Skokans.

“It means that the family can have the time to grieve and not worry that the tomatoes are rotting in the field,” she said. “It gives them the sense that they are being held by this community and that we will do whatever it takes.”

Black Cat is continuing to host farm dinners every night of the week. Reservations can be made on OpenTable.

“Thank you, friends, for your bountiful generosity — for your hearts and love, your selflessness and passion, your devotion to community. You astonish us. You enrich us,” the newsletter said. “Just as our world crumbles beneath our feet and we begin to fall, you strengthen and support us.”