Putnam Valley Steps Up to Help One of Its Own After Fire

Driving home from work after a long shift, Rebecca O’Brien can remember the exact time she received the grim phone call.

The time was 8:06 p.m. and the call was from her 15-year-old son telling her smoke was filling up their rental house. Just 30 seconds away from home, O’Brien told her son to get out of the house that would soon be engulfed in smoke and flames.

Once she arrived at her Putnam Valley home, her son Justin was thankfully safe, but the house was ruined and many of her possessions gone.

“I could see the black and I was like, ‘Is this for real?’” O’Brien said. “And I opened the door and the smoke just poured out.”

For O’Brien, a nightmare became a horrible reality. She stood there as more than 100 firefighters from three departments fought and eventually controlled the October 24 fire and “half of Putnam Valley” witnessed the blaze.

“I lost everything,” O’Brien said. “That night I was so numb I couldn’t think about it anymore.”

She was shocked that night, but in the days to follow, the struggle wasn’t as awful thanks to a fellow Putnam Valley resident and the owner of The Style Inn in Jefferson Valley, Charlene Pateman. Pateman led the Putnam Valley community in an effort to help O’Brien back on her feet and with the holidays rapidly approaching, provide a special Christmas for her son.

Last year, Pateman “adopted” a family that was affected by Hurricane Sandy and lost everything in the once in a lifetime storm. The idea to assist a family located on Staten Island started when clients would come into her hair salon and wonder how they could help families hurt by the storm.

Pateman knows how to execute a plan though. She runs a business, is a single mother, and is good at arranging and organizing. After last year went so well and made a difference for the Staten Island family, Pateman decided to make it an annual event.

Just as Pateman was wondering what family she could help this year, she got a text message from her friend informing her of the blaze and from there she knew who the community could embrace in their time of need.

“I’m just the orchestrator of the great people that are making it happen,” Pateman said. “I get great pleasure out of it.”

The day after one of the worst events of O’Brien’s life, the healing began before the scars ever set in.

The fire was on a Thursday. With a Putnam Valley football game that Friday, the public address announcer consistently requested fans in attendance donate money or other material items to the O’Brien’s.

A neighbor gave her a previously empty rental home to live in immediately and other neighbors went food shopping for the family, picking up essentials and even small things, like ketchup and mustard.

For weeks upon weeks, Justin would come home with money, gift cards and other objects that classmates, parents, teachers, coaches, hall monitors and others would hand over to him without a second thought.

“The next day Putnam Valley just took over for me,” O’Brien said. “Everybody, Charlene included, just came into my life and took over. I never had to think ‘what now?’ It was always just there and being done, there and being done.”

“The whole community has to be applauded for this,” Pateman stressed.

And now Pateman simply continues to be the liaison. She has a Facebook page titled “The Style Inn Has Adopted a Family” where she’ll post updates of things residents can get the O’Brien’s.

O’Brien, who works as a nurse, even told Pateman she had all the necessities to get through a difficult ordeal, but Pateman isn’t stopping just yet.

“Becky was saying, ‘we’re good, we’re good,’” Pateman said. “But Christmas is coming so now the fun part is coming.”

So from now until December 25, residents in and around Putnam Valley are looking to get the O’Brien’s a tree, decorations, and extravagant gifts for Justin. Pateman wants the community to act as Santa Claus.

On Amazon, there is page set up for the O’Brien’s with gifts to get Justin like PlayStation 4 games and accessories, New York Jets merchandise, and other gifts on many teenagers’ wish list.

And incredibly, and most touching, the Giorgio family, the one Pateman helped from Staten Island last year, is actively involved in this year’s efforts. The family held a fundraiser on Staten Island last month with the proceeds going to O’Brien.

And O’Brien vows to do the same act next year when she is on her feet and another family is in desperate need, like she was for a time before Pateman and Putnam Valley came to her rescue.

“For a family that lost everything to turn around and wake up the next morning and have the community knocking down your door to help you, I can’t even explain the feeling. It’s overwhelming,” O’Brien said. “I can’t wait to pay it forward to somebody else.”