OGDEN, Utah (ABC 4 News) - The Scrapbook USA Expo starts Friday, and along with the thousands of scrappers headed to Sandy, there is one woman that has a very special story.
Michelle Clarke's entire scrapbooking collection was lost in a basement flood two weeks ago. Her husband contacted ABC4 about her heartbreak, and we took her story to our friends in the scrapbooking community.
But before we tell you what happened next, we have to tell you how this all started. Michelle keeps her all of her scrapbooking supplies in her basement. She spreads it out on the floor and was in the process of organizing it two weeks ago when the sprinkler line broke outside and two feet of water came inside.
"When I woke up and found the water, that's the first thing I saw and the first thing I thought of was, everything is gone. Her scrapbooking stuff, because she lives for that," Michelle's husband Nathan says.
"About four o'clock in the morning my husband ran upstairs and said, babe, you better wake up. All of your scrapbooking stuff is ruined. And that definitely woke me up and we came downstairs and there was two feet of water in our basement. So pretty much everything got ruined," Michelle says.
The family spent hours trying to salvage what they could. Michelle even put ribbon in the washer and stickers outside in the sun, but ten thousand dollars worth of supplies were just too damaged. It seemed hopeless, until a knock at her door...
Several scrapbooking businesses heard Michelle's story and came over this week to help. They surprised the Ogden mom with paper, stickers, rub ons and two big hugs.
"This is why we work in this business," says Lori Allred from Imaginisce. Teresa Collins of Teresa Collins Design says, "I about started to cry, I had to stop myself. As scrapbookers we know there's a connection. You love your children and you want to document these things, so I could feel it when we walked in and that she was overwhelmed with happiness."
Michelle was more than overwhelmed, she was still going through her new bags and baskets of scrapbooking supplies when we left. She only got off the floor for a second to hug the man who called ABC4 and made this happy ending happen.
"I know my husband loves me," Michelle says. "And it's just good. I just don't know what to say. I'm speechless on that."
Michelle received products from Roberts Arts and Crafts, Imaginisce, and Teresa Collins Designs. It's a great start, but she says she will still be at the Scrapbook USA Expo today. In fact she's planning on getting there at six o'clock in the morning!
